Where Fire and Water Meet
by fbeauchamphartz
Summary: Sebastian is a water sprite, prince of the undersea kingdom and sole heir to the throne. Kurt is a fire fairy, prince of a race of fire fairies and heir to the throne. Five days before they are set to become kings of their respective kingdoms, they meet. What will happen when these two mortal enemies fall in love? Is there any way for them to escape destiny and be together?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _This is inspired by the story 'The Sea Prince and the Fire Child', which itself has elements of 'Romeo and Juliet', and other tragic love stories in it. However, it isn't a word-for-word retelling. As a child when I first saw the movie 'The Sea Prince and the Fire Child', a lot of it bothered me. There were things that the characters did that I thought were ridiculous, and I didn't like the way the story ended. So this is me fixing all of those problems and telling the story the way I want it :) I hope you enjoy._

A face peers around the smooth edge of a wall. Green eyes shimmering with bioluminescence pierce the surrounding shadows in search of guards.

"Is the coast clear?" a hushed voice echoes too loudly in the cavernous hall.

"Shhh!" the first escapee snaps. "Yes, but you're going to wake the whole castle if you don't keep your trap shut!"

"I know that," the second escapee whines, huddled beside his friend.

"Then stop talking," is whispered in a hiss that can be heard for miles.

"Ugh! I don't even want to do this, Sebastian."

"Well, you're gonna, Trent. And I don't want to hear another word."

Sebastian grabs his friend's hand and drags him around the corner. Sticking close to the wall, they sneak down the hallway. It's woefully dark – lit only by a subdued shaft of soft blue light, courtesy of a mob of phytoplankton congregating outside the castle windows. The two friends spiral up and up a rarely used tower of the west wing to a cramped turret obscured by a growth of coral. Out through the open window they swim, throwing anxious looks over their shoulders until the castle is completely out of sight, and the fugitive water sprites reach the open ocean.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Trent says, tossing a few extra glances over his shoulder. "If your father finds out we're gone…he'll send the royal guard…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sebastian mutters. "And he'll be disappointed. So, what else is new?"

"Well, maybe," Trent says, feeling bad for his friend but fearing for his own life, "but I don't need him angry at me."

"Are you scared of my father, Trent?" Sebastian chuckles.

"Yes," Trent replies, "and I'm not ashamed to admit it."

Cutting through the water the two sprites swim, passing amid schools of fish that decrease in size as they make their way up to the surface – a place no water sprite dares to go.

Trent stops just below, but Sebastian breaches the water's surface and looks around, searching out the fabled lick of fire light burning in the darkness of the wood. He narrows his eyes and peers through the veil formed by the black interwoven tree branches and the moonless sky until he spots it - a tiny yellow and orange drop of fire dancing magically on a branch that hovers inches above the water.

Sebastian smiles crookedly. He reaches blindly and grabs Trent by the hair, pulling him up out of the water.

"Owwww!" the sprite groans, but Sebastian turns him roughly toward the light flickering in the darkness.

"Bingo," Sebastian says. He releases his struggling friend's hair and claps him hard on the back before paddling his way toward the fire.

"Are we really going to do this, Sebastian?" Trent asks, following close behind, not wanting to be left alone above water, where any manner of animal can swoop down from the encroaching trees and swallow him up.

"Yup," Sebastian answers without turning to look at his frightened friend.

"Why, again?" Trent asks, slowing his swim as his body trembles.

Sebastian doesn't even dignify his friend's fear with a snarky remark.

"We've heard legends about this flame our whole lives, Trent. Don't you finally want to see it? With your own eyes? Once and for all?"

"No, not particularly, no. I don't."

"Why ever not?" Sebastian treads water quietly till he reaches a log jutting out of the water that blocks his path. On the other side of the log is a small enclosure of water blocked off from the sea that surrounds the light. From this distance he can see the flame just fine. But there's something else that he's searching for.

"You know why!" Trent argues. "They say these woods are haunted, Sebastian. Th-they say that the fire is tended by a hideous witch, and that the flame is kept lit by the bones of water sprites who got too close and were eaten whole."

"Oh, please," Sebastian says, rolling his eyes. "Do you still believe those stories, Trent? Look at yourself. You're a grown sprite, a member of the royal court, personal advisor to our kingdom's one and only prince. How can you still believe in ghost stories?"

"B-because some ghost stories are t-true," Trent stutters as a chill blows past, whistling through the trees.

"Jeez, Trent," Sebastian groans. "If you're going to be such a baby, why did you even come?"

"You didn't give me a choice!" Trent yells, forgetting all thoughts of evil sprite eating witches with Sebastian's arrogant comment. Sebastian clamps a hand down over Trent's mouth and holds him still, both sprites staring wide-eyed around them, willing whatever might be lurking in the shadows to stay there.

A mouse rustles the underbrush as it scurries through the leaves. An owl shrieks over their heads, causing them to duck down and submerge up to their chins. A moment of silence, and then a tortured squeak as the mouse is carried away in the owl's deadly talons, joining the bird of prey for dinner.

Sebastian lets his hand drop away from Trent's mouth.

"B-besides, you n-need me," Trent stammers unconvincingly. "I'm s-sworn to protect you."

"So how come it is I spend so much time saving your sorry ass?" Sebastian shakes his head and leaps over the log, landing with a gentle splash in the pool on the other side.

"Wait!" Trent calls out. "You saw the fire! Isn't that enough? Can't we go home now?"

"Not yet, Trent."

"Why, Sebastian?" Trent whisper-yells to the prince's back. "Why not yet?"

"Because we got this far, Trent," Sebastian says. "I'm going to go find myself a witch."

Trent sinks his fingers into the soaked log, his arms shaking.

"No, Sebastian!" Trent yells through clenched teeth. "No! Come back!"

Trent's pleas are lost to the wind and the bowing trees as Sebastian swims closer and closer to the crackling flame. The fire lures him to it. It sings to him a song both beautiful and heartbreaking. It fills his eyes and his mind with its music. It leads him from the safety of the water to its light.

Sebastian has seen heat before, in places beneath the ocean where volcanoes pour their scorching lava into the water. Beneath the sea, it blinks red for an instant then turns hard and black forever.

But this flame has a soul; it has life.

It wants Sebastian to become a part of it.

He reaches out for it – the heat drying his skin even though he is nowhere near close enough to be touched by the fire.

"Sebastian!" Trent continues to yell, but Sebastian doesn't care. He doesn't care about friends or family or life or his kingdom beneath the sea as long as he has this flame in front of him.

The flame with the mystical voice.

Something steps out from behind the fire and blocks his view. A sardonic, "Hey!" gets locked in his throat when he sees a lithe, pale body materialize from behind the fire. Sebastian has sense enough to drop down into the water, but he keeps his eyes glued to the spot where a figure dances, twirling on tip-toes, arms waving fluidly through the air, feeding the fire with petals and leaves until the light dances with him, higher and higher, touching the indigo sky.

Sebastian squints against the blazing light and he can see the figure more clearly.

His mouth drops open.

"A fairy," he breathes, watching as the young man twirls with his eyes closed, fragile wings of silver light fanning the flame, turning pink as they catch the light. The fairy faces the fire, singing (and Sebastian now realizes that it is this boy's voice he was hearing – high and otherworldly, carried on the wind) and Sebastian dares to emerge once again.

The fairy has a head of brown hair – the shade of autumn chestnuts and turning leaves. He is shirtless, and the muscles of his back throw shadows back and forth over his smooth, pastel skin. The play of shadows fascinates Sebastian, as does the line of his spine – so straight and so strong, probably earned by hours of flying. Sebastian sighs. What it must feel like to fly – to be free to travel the skies and into the clouds, to leave the world and all of your responsibilities behind.

Responsibilities that Sebastian feels pile on top of him every day, more and more, threatening to crush him dead before he even has the chance to live.

Sea King at only seventeen - the thought leaves its bitter tang on his tongue. Some sprites would see it as the ultimate honor, but for Sebastian it's a trap. Which is why he took this trip to the surface – his one and only trip, since the moment he is bestowed the mantle of king, he will never be allowed to leave the sea. Not that sprites actually can leave. His father has spent an eternity under the water, and to Sebastian's knowledge, has never once been on land, or looked up into the sky.

His father didn't have a dream - or if he did, he stopped dreaming it long ago.

The fairy stops his singing, turning his head to the side to catch a faint sound. Sebastian ducks down beneath the surface, sighing in relief that he managed to get away before he was seen. He peeks his head up, letting the surface tension of the water try to hold him under as he breaks through, but the fairy is gone.

"No," Sebastian whispers, turning his head all around to try and find the mystical being. He couldn't only have been a dream…could he? No, he wasn't. He was real. He drew Sebastian out of the water and led him here. He may be made of magic, but that hypnotic creature was definitely real.

Sebastian creeps up higher and higher. He looks into the fire, but the fairy dancing around it has disappeared.

"Hey!" he calls out. "Fairy! Where are you?"

Sebastian wants to coax the fairy back out and then hide again. He needs to see that vision once more before he leaves and never returns.

"Fairy!" he calls again, braving a move closer to the flame.

Suddenly, the light flashes brightly into Sebastian's eyes, filling the cove around them with its radiance.

"Aaahhh!" he screams, throwing his arms up to protect his eyes. But the light endures, growing brighter. It turns white, breaking through every gap, weeding into every space, and he's blinded. He's knocked hard into the water, unconscious, sinking like a stone.

"Sebastian!" Trent calls from his hiding spot behind the log. "Sebastian!"

When the light is gone, Trent looks over into the secluded pool, but the prince is nowhere he can see.

"Sebastian!"

Trent throws himself over the log and into the water, heedless of the fairy or the fire, and swims down quickly to the spot he last saw his friend.

From behind the lick of fire, the fairy peeks his head out and watches the two figures disappear beneath the inky black water.

* * *

><p>"Sebastian!" Trent turns in a full circle, panicked at being in this strange water alone. It's too dark, too quiet, brimming with some kind of enchantment that Trent can feel prickling along his skin.<p>

He spots the prince's limp body below him, falling through the water, heading down to a trench – a black, bottomless void cut into the ocean floor. Faster Sebastian falls, and Trent swims at full speed after him, beating his arms against the water, trying to keep up. Trent gains on him when Sebastian slows, reaching out an arm to grab him, but Sebastian swirls out of reach as a current of water sweeps him away, dragging him under. Trent kicks his legs furiously, feeling an invisible pull the closer they get to the gaping hole, as if icy hands are reaching for them.

"Sebastian!" Trent screams, putting on a burst of energy, a last desperate effort that will either save Sebastian or doom them both.

But it seems that whatever god protects water dwellers is with them. The current stops dead, and Trent grabs the sea prince under the arms, kicking with all his might to take them far from the fissure.

"I got you, Sebastian," he mutters as he fights up through the water, heading back in the direction of their underwater kingdom. "I'll get us home."


	2. Chapter 2

"What in the world was that?" a tiny voice calls. A fairy followed by a trail of pink effervescence hurtles through the night toward the cove. "Kurt! Kurt! Where are you? Are you okay?"

Kurt rolls his eyes as his younger sister lands on the branch beside him. She had just learned that sparkle trick, and now she was overdoing it. She'll have every hawk and owl in the forest chasing after her, looking to make a meal of her, and he'd have the misfortune of having to save her butt.

"Yes," Kurt answers in a pacifying, singsong voice, "I'm fine. But aren't _you_ supposed to be asleep? You have lessons in the morning."

"I was watching you from the palace window," Rachel replies, shaking her head at her silly brother, "you know that."

"Yeah," Kurt says with a heavy sigh, "I know that."

"Besides," Rachel continues, not noticing her brother's exasperation, "the way the Eternal Flame flashed white like that, I'm amazed that a whole regiment of the queen's army isn't down here to see that you haven't screwed up."

Kurt balls his hands into fists and squeezes tight, counting down from ten in his head in order to stay calm. He doesn't want to snap at his sister. She's not _trying_ to be insulting - it just happens to be a talent of hers - but in reality this is the way she shows that she cares.

Still, Kurt sometimes wishes that his sister could care a little less.

"Yes, well, thank heavens I haven't messed up too badly yet," Kurt says, his hint of sarcasm flying completely over her head. "Don't you think you should be heading back now, Rachel? It's not good for you to be out at this hour of the night. Mother will worry if she finds you out of bed."

"Pfft!" Rachel blows a breath between pursed lips. "I'm fourteen years old. I'm not a child anymore…" (Kurt bites his tongue hard to keep from saying all the things crossing through his mind while his sister rants on.) "And besides, I _am_ a princess, and will become keeper of the flame during the night when you are crowned king. That's in five days!"

"Yeah," Kurt says, dropping down to sit on the branch beside the flame that is his charge - that _has_ been his responsibility for the last fourteen years. Ever since his wings could carry him, he had been given the task of watching the Eternal Flame. His mother, the Queen of the Fire Fairies, watches the flame by day. It is a necessary duty that only a member of the royal family can perform.

Kurt, heir to the throne when he turns seventeen, will become king and take over for his mother, leaving Rachel to guard the flame by night.

An eternity of this, only during the day instead of at night.

Kurt could hardly wait.

"Though, I don't see how I can," Rachel continues, sounding distinctly downhearted, sitting beside her brother. "I don't know how to tend the fire the way you and Mother can. I'm going to be a failure as a princess…even more so than you."

Kurt scoffs and Rachel sighs, her wings drooping, her body deflating with sorrow. Kurt eyes his sister, ready to send the wicked menace on her way, but he can't help his small smile.

"Come on, you little pest," Kurt says, fluttering his wings and rising up to stand. He hooks a hand beneath Rachel's arm and lifts her up to join him. "I'll show you how it's done."

* * *

><p>The rays of the morning sun start as pinpricks on the horizon, but in no time they bathe the cove in golden light. Kurt yawns, twirling on his toes and scowling at Rachel, who fell asleep in the grass hours ago. He yawns again and smiles when, in her sleep, she yawns back. He can't stay mad at her. He could never truly be angry with his sister. The closest to his age of all their sisters, she was the only person he had in his life that he could call a friend, even if she was an annoying, obnoxious beast.<p>

The sunlight races across the water to greet him and he knows at any moment _she_ will appear. A shadow sweeps by over their heads, circling once before lighting on the branch beside him.

"Good morning, Mother," he says, bowing low to the fairy whose body shrinks before his eyes. His mother, Queen Elizabeth, is a fairy of exceptional, flowing beauty - bright blue eyes the color of cornflowers, long brown hair that hangs down past her waist, and pale alabaster skin - one of her greatest gifts to her son.

"Good morning, my son," his mother says, resting a hand on the crown of Kurt's head. "I see you've had an eventful night."

Kurt's eyes pop open, staring up at his mother, the color draining from his cheeks.

_She knows,_ he thinks. _She knows about the intruders – the boys from under the sea. The boy with the glowing green eyes…_

"Uh, eventful, Mother?" Kurt stumbles, not sure how his mother would react to knowing there were sprites in the cove – and that he had let them go with their lives. At least, he hoped so.

He hoped that beautiful sprite who stared at him was alright.

Kurt swallows hard as he waits for his mother's answer. She is a fair and kind queen – most of the time. But being a fairy, even one imbued with tremendous magic that allows her to change size and shape at will, she can only express one emotion at a time.

When his mother becomes wrathful, the whole of the earth trembles in fear.

Queen Elizabeth smiles sweetly at her son.

"Your sister," she says, gesturing toward the fairy sleeping in the dappled sunlight. "She came down to bother you again, I see."

"Rachel?" he asks, ready to faint in shock. "Oh, yes. She's nervous about learning to command the flame. I taught her a few steps, but then she fell asleep."

"Well, if she would stop bothering you at night, maybe she could stay awake for her lessons during the day," his mother says with a lighthearted chuckle.

"Yes," Kurt agrees, nervously nodding his head, "but it was alright. Her visit broke up the…monotony."

Kurt feels his heart race and he knows that his mother - with all of her immense power - can sense it. She can sniff out a lie for miles and Kurt has never been good at keeping secrets, especially from his mother. She tilts her head as she looks at him, her brow furrowing.

"Shall I take her back to the palace for you?" Kurt asks, hoping to sidetrack his mother.

Queen Elizabeth narrows her eyes and stares at him, a frown curling the edges of her delicate pink mouth.

"No," she says, smiling again as she begins her dance around the flame. "I'll let her rest here. When she wakes up, she'll start her lessons. Why don't you return to the palace and get some rest, my son?"

Kurt bows again, sighing in relief softly in hopes that his mother won't hear.

"Thank you, Mother."

Kurt turns his back to the fire, feeling its heat escape him as he starts to fly away. He spins once he's in the air, looking down at the cove, and his mother and sister, and the pool of water where the two uninvited sprites had snuck up on him the night before. What were they doing there? What did they have planned for him? He had always been told tales of water sprites who lured unwitting fire fairies to the water's edge and then drowned them. But the sprites he saw didn't look like they meant him any harm. One even seemed afraid and the other…the other was captivating…

Kurt only knows what he's heard and now, what he's seen, but it's still so confusing. He's not sure what to believe. What if they come back? What should he do then?

He knows what he's been told to do, but he doesn't think he can kill them.

He flutters back down to the log and sits. He watches his mother dance, envious of her beauty and her grace. So many times he has felt awkward tending the flame. His feet don't know the steps as well as hers do, even after so many years of practice. His arms do not bend as smoothly – she can curve hers like a petal, while his are all angles like a thorn.

But he'll have a lifetime to perfect his technique.

Longer than a lifetime.

"Mother?" Kurt asks, swinging his legs back and forth, careful not to touch the water. "May I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Elizabeth says, not halting her steps or her song.

"Tell me again, please, why we do not interact with those who live beneath the sea?"

Elizabeth's dance ceases.

Not a favorable sign.

Kurt holds his breath.

"We just _don't_, my son," Elizabeth answers, starting again, shrugging the question off.

"I know," Kurt says, venturing forward boldly with his questions while his brain screams for him stop, "but…_why_ don't we?"

Elizabeth stops again and Kurt prepares to retract his question, apologize profusely, and fly as fast as he can back home.

"Why are you asking me this?" she asks, stepping up to him. "Have you seen one?"

He leaps up, standing to face her.

"No, my queen," Kurt says as respectfully as he can, trying to sound earnest. She says nothing, her eyes boring into him, trying to unearth the truth. He presses his knees together to keep his body from shaking. "I swear," Kurt lies. "I have seen nothing. I'm simply curious."

Kurt can't contain his trembling – a combination of excitement, exhaustion, and fear – and Elizabeth takes pity on her son.

"My poor child," she says, reaching out a hand and petting his cheek, "look at your eyes. You are so tired."

Kurt feels his body relax. His mother is evading his question, but that's fine. There are other ways to find out the answers.

"Yes, Mother," he says. "I am tired." He yawns for good measure.

"I thought so." She continues her dancing, dismissing him. "Go back to the palace and get straight into bed."

"I will," Kurt says. He catches his mother long enough to kiss her on the cheek, and then takes to the air, climbing high until the cove is out of sight and he can see the expanse of the ocean stretching out from the land. Somewhere beneath all that water live colonies of creatures and animals he has never seen, things he couldn't possibly imagine.

Somewhere beneath all that water is the sprite with the green eyes.

Kurt thinks of his face - his open, awed expression, his eyes with their soft light glowing from within, chestnut hair framing his tanned skin. The boy didn't seem dangerous, and yet, Kurt tried to burn him. His heart freezes with the shame of it – a wash of regret that weighs him down and almost drops him from the sky. Kurt can only hope that he didn't kill the boy…and that he will find a way to return.

Kurt needs to see him again.


	3. Chapter 3

"Sebastian, wake up," Trent pleads to the prince's unconscious face. After hours of swimming, Trent - physically and emotionally exhausted, his body nearly done in - is beginning to lose hope. Sebastian is breathing, but he hasn't woken, hasn't blinked, hasn't moved for hours – not even in the ways someone normally jars and mutters while they sleep, and Sebastian is a notorious sleep talker. The sensitive skin of Sebastian's eyelids is stained black with a fine ash, and there's a burn mark across his brow, but otherwise he seems uninjured. Trent looked Sebastian's body over as soon as they were far enough away from that accursed cove to risk stopping, trying to find any other burns on his skin, but there weren't any.

"Please, wake up, Sebastian."

Trent swam all day, stopping from time to time to check on his prince and to rest, keeping Sebastian to the parts of the ocean untouched by daylight. Daylight in any form will hurt a sprite, but exposure to direct daylight out of the water will kill them. By late afternoon, Trent finally made his way back to the castle, miraculously avoiding being seen and sending up any sort of alarm. He hid with Sebastian in the coral garden, beneath the splayed fingers of a yellow Elkhorn coral, blocked from the view of passersby and the castle windows above.

"Sebastian, I need you to wake up now," Trent says, his voice wavering as despair begins to take over. "You're my best friend. Besides, I don't want to go to your father and tell him his only son is dead." Trent withers at the thought. "You know he's going to kill me, too."

Trent bends over, crippled in his grief, resting his ear on Sebastian's chest in search of a heartbeat.

"Please, Sebastian," he mutters, tears starting in his eyes. "Get up…please, get up."

Trent hears a cough…then a huff…then a snort…and a muffled snicker. Trent looks up to see his friend's eyes struggle to open, weakly parting, unfocused eyes searching Trent's face.

"What are you going to do next?" Sebastian asks, his voice harsh and raspy. "Profess your undying love to me? Kiss me?"

Trent is a rush of unabashed joy for only a second before humiliation sets in.

"You're a jerk," Trent snaps, pushing Sebastian away.

"Awww, admit it," Sebastian says, sitting up and pressing a hand to his spinning head, "you were worried about me."

"I was worried about being ground into chum and fed to the jellyfish, that's all I was worried about," Trent grouses. He rises to his feet and brushes off his pants, offering Sebastian a hand up regardless of his anger. "And by the way, your royal ass-ness, you are officially late for another war meeting."

"Wha-" Sebastian brushes of his clothes, grimacing at the scorch marks curling the hem of his pants. He stops and slaps a palm to his forehead. "Aw, crap!" he groans, half out of pain and half out of irritation. He scrambles out from under the coral, feet pushing into the wet sand as he propels himself forward, kicking up clouds in his wake. He circles around the castle, heading for the entrance. "Couldn't you have gotten us back here any faster?" he yells at Trent, who clambers behind him, fighting to keep up.

"Maybe I _could_ have gotten here faster if I had dropped the _dead weight _I was dragging," Trent groans.

Sebastian smirks at his friend's comment as they backtrack through the hallways, taking the same path they had earlier, dashing through the maze of corridors till they get to the main hall, feet sliding across the slick floors. Sebastian rounds the corner to the war room, continuing on alone, stopping at the door and straightening what is left of his singed pants. He doesn't have time to race back to his room and grab his royal sash, so shirtless will have to do.

He knows his dad will hate it.

Sebastian can already hear voices from the war room echo out into the hallway before he enters.

"The situation is serious. We should attack now…"

"Take them by surprise. We cannot delay any longer…"

"It seems an army of jellyfish attacked the outlying area a full moon ago, my king. And there are reports that a larger army is amassing west of the whale graveyard…"

"But do we know _why_ they chose there?"

"It's not all that heavily guarded and…"

The guard at the entrance clears his throat when Sebastian enters, wincing at the sight of Sebastian's blackened eyes and ruined pants.

"Presenting, His Royal Highness, Prince Sebastian."

Sebastian barely makes it a foot through the doorway when the entire assemblage stops speaking, turns in his direction, and stares openmouthed. His father, the massive black figure at the far end of the room, revolves around slowly and to grand dramatic effect. The oldest among the water sprites, he fills the room from nearly floor to ceiling. His once pale skin now an oily pitch color, he absorbs every inch of light in the room, making it seem darker than it really is. Unlike other water sprites, he's developed thick, rugged tentacles from years of scouring the ocean floor and rarely swimming. His eyes, once green like Sebastian's, have become large yellow discs with no discernible pupils. He's a fearsome monster to behold, the leviathan of nightmares and legends.

And Sebastian gets to call him father.

The Great Sea King takes one look at his son and closes his yellow eyes in disgust.

"Leave us," he says, gesturing with his tentacles to those gathered around the room.

Without a word, the entire council stands and leaves, eyes adverted as they pass the boy their king shows so much disdain for.

"Close the door," he calls again to the guard who lingers only as long as he needs to. The heavy door closes, and Sebastian and his father stand on opposite ends of the room - alone.

Sebastian steps forward, back straight, shoulders square, head high – as much the countenance of royalty as he can muster – but when his father opens his eyes again, he is unimpressed by his son's posturing.

"Father," Sebastian starts, clasping his hands behind his back to stop their shaking, "I apologize for being late, but I have a good explana-"

"Look at you," his father sneers, addressing his son with a grimace. "Look at your clothes, your face. You are a mess, and late to yet another important meeting." The king turns his back on his son, staring at the wall behind him. "You make a poor prince. What sort of king are you going to be? You are a disgrace."

Sebastian glowers at his father, for all the good his sour face does when his father refuses to even look at him.

"If I'm such a disgrace, then don't make me king," Sebastian says bitterly, trying to cover the hurt in his voice.

"If I had any other choice, I wouldn't," his father says, sighing heavily from the burden of his troublesome son. "We are done here. You may go."

Sebastian jerks back. In his father's presence less than five minutes and already dismissed. It must be some new record. A younger Sebastian would have apologized, fallen on his knees and begged for his father's forgiveness, begged to be given another chance, but this more jaded Sebastian knows better. Even at his best, Malek, the King of the Sea, had never seen any worth in his only son. So Sebastian simply turns on his heel and storms out of the room.

His face burns bright with embarrassment, but he no longer cares who sees him. It's no secret what his father thinks of him.

He expects to find Trent loitering in the hallway waiting for him. He hopes to find no one. He needs a moment to himself to remember why it is he doesn't take to the waves and swim as far away from the palace and his father as he can.

One reason, he knows, is because there isn't anywhere in the sea he can go that his father can't find him.

But also because he loves his kingdom. He wants to be a good king. He does have opinions about how to handle the ravaging jellyfish hordes that have been attacking and killing unchecked for months, but his father doesn't want to hear them.

His father wants Sebastian punctual, but mostly quiet at all times.

That's not something that Sebastian is prepared to do.

That will all change when Sebastian becomes king. He'll call the shots and he will answer to no one, but it would be nice if before then he could make his father see him for the king he will be, not the disobedient prince Malek thinks he is.

If he could only find a way…

"Running away from responsibility again, Sebastian?" a snide voice asks from the shadows.

"I'm not running away from anything," Sebastian growls, turning to face the eavesdropper leaning against the wall, legs crossed at the ankles, looking exceptionally comfortable hiding in the dark. It's his glowing blue eyes Sebastian sees first, then his golden mane of hair, and that slight knowing grin that Sebastian so often wants to smack off his face. "Maybe you should stop hanging around where you aren't welcome."

"My father is still the king's steward," Hunter says, "so technically, I _am_ welcome here."

"_Your father_ is welcome here," Sebastian sneers, "and just barely. You, on the other hand, are nothing, and therefore _unwelcome_."

"You know," Hunter continues, "you look like you've been under a lot of stress lately." Hunter's eyes sweep down Sebastian's body, stopping on the scorched portions of his pants and traveling up to the burn on his forehead, staring with a curious eyebrow raised. "If you can't handle the numerous responsibilities of being appointed Sea King, I would be more than happy to take it off of your shoulders, _Prince_ Sebastian. All you need do is ask."

Sebastian rolls his eyes at this overconfident sprite who used to be his best friend – a long time ago before a jealous and ambitious Hunter discovered he would be next in line for the throne if anything unfortunate happened to Sebastian.

"No, thank you," Sebastian says, sauntering away. "I've got it covered." Sebastian stops mid-step and turns, walking back toward the cocky sprite staring daggers into Sebastian's back. "And by the way…you may want to start packing your bags, because the second I get that crown on my head, you're out of here."

Sebastian pats Hunter's cheek condescendingly then walks lazily off to his room.

Hunter watches Sebastian swagger down the hallway and out of sight, laughing to himself.

"We'll see," Hunter mutters, catching a glimpse of the morose sea king before heading in the opposite direction. "We'll see."


	4. Chapter 4

Kurt wants nothing else in the world but to fall straight to sleep. Every inch, every fiber of his body cries out for it, but it's elusive - it evades him at every turn. Every time he closes his eyes he sees the water sprite fly backward, flame scorching his eyes, curling at his skin. He hears the boy's friend yell out, sees him plunge into the water after him, trying to rescue him, but Kurt knows it was all for naught.

It was too late.

The beautiful creature with the luminescent green eyes is gone from this world, never to return.

He falls to sleep once he comes to terms with it and cries himself out, but wakes a few short, far-from-peaceful hours later, his pillow soaked in tears.

Night has only begun to touch the crest of the hills when Kurt departs the palace and heads for the cove. Even though in his head he's convinced the sprite is dead, his heart holds out hope for a bit longer. Either way, he needs to know once and for all if the water sprite is okay, and he can't wait any longer. All he can do is tend to the flame and hope the boy returns. Or maybe his friend. Someone who can tell Kurt what happened after they disappeared into the sea.

Kurt circles the cove once, letting the blanket of night fall further before he approaches the flame.

"You are back early, my son," Elizabeth says when she sees Kurt return. "It is not yet completely dark. The gold of sunset still lights the horizon, and you need your rest, especially now."

"I know, Mother," Kurt says, trying hard to hide his red-rimmed eyes and his puffy, tear-stained cheeks. "But I could not sleep, what with the eclipse coming up soon."

"Yes," Elizabeth says with a proud smile, "you'll finally come of age and you will truly be king." Elizabeth bends over and looks deep into her son's blue eyes. "Oh, my darling. Have you been crying?"

"Maybe…a little," Kurt stammers, biting his lip, praying his mother doesn't ask what he's been crying about. There are no words to explain why he's weeping over the fate of a water sprite - one of their mortal enemies.

"Oh, dearest," she says, taking him under her arm. "I know it's a lot to take in, but you'll do a wonderful job as king. I have faith in you."

"You do?" Kurt asks, relieved at his mother's assumption of his capabilities.

"Of course," she says, squeezing him tight. "I always have." Kurt looks up into his mother's face, at her rosy cheeks and her pale skin that absorbs the very essence of the fire and lights her from within. "Now, have a good evening, my love, and think no more about it. It will come soon enough. Enjoy your last few nights of freedom while you can."

Kurt smiles at his mother when she kisses him on the forehead, the fire from her lips leaving a mark on his skin like a star, but in his chest, his heart cracks.

If this is freedom, then he doesn't want to be king.

His mother lets him go and takes off into the sky, noticing nothing out of the ordinary about her eldest son. He watches her leave with tears in his eyes, watching the trails of golden light follow her as she heads home to the palace. When she is gone from sight and he is utterly alone, he slumps into a heap and begins to cry, tears streaming down his face and falling into the water as the bright orange sun sets.

* * *

><p>Sebastian sits on the finger of a sea fan, far above the highest tower of the castle, within inches of where the rays of sunlight reach. He sits in that spot for the remainder of the day, watching as the light travels and becomes dimmer, pulling away from him, leaving him alone as nighttime falls again. It seemed like only a few hours ago he was above the surface.<p>

Now he has another chance.

He doesn't take Trent along with him this time. The poor portly sprite needs his rest. Sebastian owes Trent his life, and this is how he's chosen to repay him – by not dragging him along on anymore foolish and possibly deadly adventures.

Besides, Sebastian wants the chance to be alone with the fairy – to watch him from a distance, perhaps even to talk to him if he plucks up the courage. Sebastian leaves as soon as the sea loses all light, swimming to the surface, breaking through the water in the exact same spot. But instead of singing this time, Sebastian is beckoned by the sound of crying.

Sebastian pricks up his ears and follows it, back to the log that blocks access to the small pool, and there he is – the exceptional fairy, lying across the low-hanging branch, crying into the water. Sebastian feels his heart tighten. He doesn't want the fairy crying. He's far too divine a being to cry. Sebastian considers calling out to him. He doesn't want to frighten him. But there are too many obstacles barring his way. He rushes forward, climbing up onto the log, accidentally catching his foot on a knot and falling face first into the water. The sound of splashing water catches Kurt's attention and his head pops up. He rises to his feet and runs to hide behind the flame, but Sebastian drops down into the water.

"Please," he calls out. "Please…don't burn me again."

Kurt gasps at the water sprite's plea.

_Burned him, _Kurt thinks_. I burned him. But he looks fine. What if it's a trick?_

Kurt needs to stay on his guard, but he still wants to talk to this water sprite.

"Oh," Kurt says, coming out from behind the fire. "Did I…did I really burn you?"

"Only a little," Sebastian says, swimming closer. "But, it's better now."

Kurt watches him tread the water. The sprite comes further into the reach of the light and Kurt can see the burn across Sebastian's forehead, the slight red on the skin of his eyelids.

"Oh!" Kurt throws a hand to his face. "I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," Sebastian says, waving a hand. "I heal pretty quickly, don't you worry."

Kurt nods, but the look of sadness on his face remains, and it tugs at Sebastian's heart.

"What's your name?" Sebastian asks.

Kurt opens his mouth, but then shuts it again.

"I don't know that I should tell you," Kurt says, standing closer to the fire for comfort.

Sebastian's face crumples at Kurt's response.

"Why not?" Sebastian asks, keeping his distance even though he wishes he could move closer.

"Because names have power," Kurt explains, "and if I tell it to you, you might use it to control my mind. Then you might drag me into the water and drown me."

Sebastian stares at Kurt blankly for a moment, and then bursts out laughing. Kurt startles, then frowns, taking great offense at the insolent sprite's rude reaction.

"Who in the world told you that?" Sebastian asks once he can catch his breath.

"It's a legend," Kurt says defiantly. "It is something that fairies know."

"Something fairies know, huh?" Sebastian asks, ducking down quickly beneath the water to soothe his drying skin.

"Yes," Kurt says with a nod. "Aren't there any legends below the water where you come from? Stories that give you knowledge to guide your steps and keep you out of danger?"

"Actually, yes," Sebastian admits.

"Like what?" Kurt asks, crouching down beside the flame to hear the water sprite better.

"Well, water sprites _know_," Sebastian starts, swimming to a point on the branch farther away from the fire than Kurt stands, "that this fire here is tended by a scary, ugly witch."

"What?" Kurt stands up, stunned.

Sebastian laughs again and shakes his head as the fairy glares at him.

"You see," Sebastian says. "Some things that we know aren't necessarily true."

"Maybe…" Kurt agrees, "but if you're not here to lure me down below and kill me, then why are you here?"

Sebastian hadn't anticipated that question. He had a good reason for coming up the first time, yes. He had been curious. But why did he feel the need to come back? He hadn't really been able to answer that for himself other than he needed to see the fairy again.

He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't.

"I…I wanted to talk to you," Sebastian says. "I saw you last night, and I…didn't get to say hi."

Kurt's lips quirk in a mottled expression of confusion.

"You came all this way…to say hi?" Kurt asks.

Sebastian raises an arm out of the water and extends it Kurt's way.

"My name is Sebastian," he says, hoping that offering the fairy his name first would look like an act of trust. Kurt looks at the sprite's arm, drops of water sliding down his skin and falling back into the water. Sebastian raises his eyebrows, waiting for the fairy to tell him his name and shake his hand. "And you are…" Sebastian tries.

Kurt looks Sebastian over, not sure about taking his hand. It seemed like asking for trouble. But his eyes fall on the burns on Sebastian's face and he knows he can't deprive the sprite of his name at least, for the pain he has caused.

"Kurt," he says, fluttering behind the fire with his head peeking out. "My name is Kurt."

"Kurt," Sebastian says, smiling when he does. Such a simple name, but it seemed to fit. Sebastian liked it – he liked it a lot.

"Well, Kurt," Sebastian says, reaching the branch and attempting to pull himself up onto it, "I…"

"Kurt!"

"What?" Kurt groans in disbelief. "No! Not now…"

"Who is it?" Sebastian asks, letting go of the branch.

"It's my sister."

"Oh," Sebastian says with a twinge of disappointment, "should I come back later?"

"No!" Kurt exclaims. "Don't go. Just…just hide."

"Okay," Sebastian says, sinking beneath the water and finding an area of thick weeds to hunker down in.

"Kurt!" Rachel calls to her brother, fluttering down to the branch right as Sebastian disappears.

"What?" Kurt asks, turning back to the flame, drawing Rachel's eyes along with it so she doesn't spot the disturbance in the water.

"I noticed that the flame looked dimmer than usual," she comments, picking up a handful of leaves and tossing them into the fire. They curl and crackle, devoured by the flame, but the fire doesn't change or grow, not at all amused by Rachel's amateurish efforts.

"Did you?" Kurt mutters, picking up a few petals and tossing them in, smirking when the flame rises high into the sky, outdoing his sister by a mile.

"Yes," she says, frowning. "So I came down here to make sure it was okay, and that you weren't letting it go out. You know what will happen if you do."

Kurt huffs and takes a step, twirling on his toes and tossing more petals into the fire.

"No," Kurt says sarcastically. "Why don't you tell me?"

"The seas will rise up," Rachel says, raising her arms over her head, trying to coax the fire into climbing for her but with no success, "and they'll wash over the land, sweeping every last one of us into the sea."

"Oh, how awful!" Kurt says. "If only we could do something…like fly away…"

Rachel's mouth twists unpleasantly as she watches Kurt dance, with Kurt wishing anxiously that she would just go away.

"By the way, who were you talking to?" Rachel asks, putting her hands on her hips and looking at Kurt with accusation in her eyes.

Kurt stops dancing.

"Nobody," Kurt says sternly.

"Oh, but I heard you talking to someone," Rachel insists, swinging her hips as she walks up to her brother.

"Well, as you can clearly see, there's nobody here," Kurt says, opening his eyes wide and gesturing around. "So maybe you're hearing things."

Rachel quirks her lips and attempts to stare her brother down, but Kurt knows this tactic, and stares right back, challenging Rachel to blink first.

"Fine," Rachel says. "Then teach me a few more steps."

Kurt sighs, rolling his head on his neck and looking up at the stars.

"Not tonight, Rachel."

Rachel stomps her foot.

"Why not?"

Kurt glances back at the water behind Rachel and sees Sebastian's face peeking up at him from below the surface.

"Because…I need some time alone…" Kurt stammers. "To think."

Rachel turns, following Kurt's gaze, and Kurt races around her to block Sebastian's face.

"To think about what?" she asks suspiciously, trying to look around her brother's body.

"I'm going to be king soon," Kurt says, "and I have a lot on my mind."

Rachel crosses her arms over her chest and sticks her nose in the air.

"I don't believe you," she says, stomping her foot again. "You're hiding something from me, and I'm not leaving until you tell me what it is."

Rachel is the closest thing Kurt has to a best friend, but she can't keep a secret to save her life.

It doesn't matter anyway since Sebastian isn't a secret that he wants to share.

"I don't care what you believe," Kurt says, gathering a ball of pink flame from the fire on the branch. "I want you to leave, and now you're going to go."

Rachel's eyes grow to the size of dinner plates when she sees the fire in Kurt's hands – a trick she can neither do _nor_ deflect.

"You wouldn't dare," she says through quivering lips.

Kurt simply smiles and raises his arm, and Rachel shoots into the sky like a rocket, a trail of pink following her as she leaves.

Kurt tosses the ball of flame back into the fire and dusts of his ash-covered palms.

"That was…that was incredible," a quiet voice speaks up from behind him.

"Hmm?" Kurt turns to see Sebastian emerge from the water. He pulls himself onto the very end of the branch, farthest from the fire, and stares at Kurt with that same look of awe. "What was?"

"The way you made that ball of fire," Sebastian says. "Could you always do that?"

"It took me a while to learn, but yeah," Kurt says, sitting by the flame.

"Can other fairies do that?" Sebastian asks, scooting over a bit closer to Kurt.

"No," Kurt says, trying his best not to sound conceited, though his ability to physically handle fire is one of the things he's most proud of. "It's a talent that only members of the royal family have, and right now, one only my mother and I possess."

Sebastian stops scooting and his jaw drops.

"You're…you're royalty?"

Kurt ducks his head, moving an inch closer to Sebastian as well.

"Yeah," Kurt says, though this he doesn't sound quite as proud of. "I'm a prince," he says with a sigh, "and on my birthday, I'm going to become king."

"Wow," Sebastian says, moving again. "And when's your birthday."

"In five days," Kurt answers, sitting a distance from the flame, "during the solar eclipse."

"That's really interesting," Sebastian says, "because you see, I…"

Sebastian's hand brushes Kurt's, and he hears the hiss of his cold, wet skin touching Kurt's warmth.

"Because you what?" Kurt asks, jumping at the same sound.

"I…"

The leaves rustle in the trees overhead – a dark shadow passing with a trail of pink blazing behind it. Kurt thinks quickly and shoves Sebastian into the water.

"Wha-what is it?" Sebastian sputters.

"Oh, really, Rachel!" Kurt hisses as the shadow makes another pass.

"What is it?" Sebastian repeats, ducking and turning all around, as if expecting something to swoop down and grab him.

"Oh, nothing," Kurt says. "Just my sister told my mother on me."

"Gotcha. I'll come back tomorrow night," Sebastian says, and then disappears without giving Kurt a chance to say yes or no.

"Kurt!" he hears his mother's severe voice call to him from the bough beside the fire. He looks up and notices that the spot where he and Sebastian were sitting is pretty much shielded from view of the sky. With any luck, his mother didn't catch sight of Sebastian at all.

"Yes, Mother?" Kurt calls, taking a few steps forward and dropping into a dutiful bow.

"Kurt…" Elizabeth turns and approaches her bowing son, concern in her voice, "Rachel says you are having a problem and that I needed to come right away."

Kurt peeks up at his sister, who sticks her tongue out at him and smiles smugly, crossing her thin arms across her chest. Kurt feels his eyes burn with hatred for his sister.

"Yes, Mother," Kurt says, "I do have a problem."

He looks up into his mother's eyes.

"Oh?" she says, waiting for Kurt to explain.

"My problem is that I don't get one night of peace," he says, his words biting at Rachel - harsh and venomous. "Night after night, my sister finds need to come down here and bother me. Soon, my time here will be done, and I will be king…and I don't get an inch of respect. I asked for one night to myself, and she couldn't give me that."

Kurt isn't sure exactly how his mother will respond to his statement, especially when her face glows red.

"Rachel!" his mother yells, turning to her daughter who dashed away, cowering in the bushes.

"Y-yes, Mother?" Rachel says, less cocky now that her mother's glowing eyes are fixed on her.

"Did your brother ask you to leave him alone?"

"Well…"

Elizabeth's eyes flash wildly and Rachel whimpers from her hiding spot.

"Maybe, but I…"

"Yes…or…no?" Elizabeth asks, and Kurt actually feels sorry for his sister – though not much.

"Well, yes, but…"

"Enough!" the queen roars, raising a hand to silence her daughter. She looks back at her son with sympathetic eyes. "Kurt, I apologize for the behavior of your sister. If you are willing to bestow upon her your forgiveness, I will personally insure that she does not leave the palace again until your coronation. Do you agree?"

Kurt looks over at Rachel, not a line on his face betraying his inner rush of triumph, but his eyes letting Rachel know that he's won.

"I forgive her," Kurt says, bowing low.

"Thank you, my son," Elizabeth says, kissing Kurt on the top of his head. "We will leave you to your thoughts."

Kurt nods, raising his eyes to his sister who rises up slowly from her hiding place.

"Rachel!" their mother barks. "You will come with me."

The queen flies off toward the palace with Rachel following behind. Rachel looks over her shoulder and spies her brother, waving with a patronizing smile on his face, returning to his dance around the flame.

Rachel grits her teeth, shaking from head to toe as she plots her revenge.


	5. Chapter 5

Sebastian zips through the water, laughing as he goes – twirling on his toes, dancing with his arms outstretched, like Kurt does around his lick of flame. He's nowhere near as graceful as Kurt, but that doesn't matter. Just attempting to perform those complicated steps makes him feel closer to the fairy, like he doesn't have to leave him ever. Sebastian weeds in among a school of moonfish, leaping from fish to fish, watching himself in the reflective surfaces of their scales, holding out his arms as if he's circling the water with Kurt in his embrace. He closes his eyes and in his mind he's back up on the surface, with Kurt's body pressed against his, the beautiful fairy throwing his head back and laughing up to the sky. He's so real in Sebastian's mind that Sebastian can actually _feel_ him - his skin warm, his hair soft as it tickles Sebastian's cheek, the two of them together daring anyone to see them, to know with one glance what Sebastian had realized the moment Kurt spoke to him and his heart thumped to a stop in his chest.

Sebastian is in love.

How it can happen so quickly – or how it can happen _at all_ considering – Sebastian doesn't know, nor does he care. He is filled to the brim with this new sensation until there is nothing left in his heart or in his thoughts but Kurt.

He's light-hearted, ridiculous, and adolescent – all of those things that his father tried to train out of him.

He nearly dances all the way back to the castle, his mind a mess of thoughts that make little sense other than that they are about Kurt. It makes a million-and-one other vastly important things easy to ignore.

Like the eyes of both friend and foe that watch his every move as he finally arrives to the castle and skips happily inside.

"Sebastian!" Trent calls out, racing to catch up with his friend. "Sebastian! Wait up!"

"I can't," Sebastian says, giving in to a huge yawn. "I have to hit the rack. I had a big night and I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I needed to talk to you about."

Sebastian stops in front of his door, which gives Trent the chance to catch up to him.

"Do we have to?" Sebastian groans. Sebastian doesn't want this now – he doesn't need it now. Not when he has plans to spend a long morning dreaming about Kurt – talking to Kurt, making Kurt laugh, kissing Kurt…

"It's important," Trent says, putting his hand on Sebastian's door and holding it shut. Sebastian sighs. He can easily strong-arm Trent away from the door, but Trent is his best friend. He's only looking out for Sebastian's best interest, Sebastian knows that.

If only Trent took his job a little less seriously.

"What is it?" Sebastian asks.

"Where were you last night?" Trent asks, having the sense to whisper his question.

Sebastian doesn't want people checking up on him. When does being prince, or king for that matter, mean that he can be trusted?

Apparently, today is not that day.

"Where do you _think_ I was, Trent?" Sebastian asks.

"Did you go back to the cove?" Trent asks. "To see…"

"Yes," Sebastian answers. "I did."

"Why didn't you take me with you?"

Trent sounds hurt.

_Ugh!_ Sebastian thinks. _Anything but that._

Sebastian clenches his jaw until his ears ring.

He didn't want this. He didn't want to have this conversation. He didn't want to admit to his best friend that he had deliberately left him behind.

"Plausible deniability," Sebastian says. "This way if my father asked, you wouldn't need to lie. You're a horrible liar."

"But…but why?" Trent asks.

Sebastian can't answer, but from the look in Trent's eyes, Sebastian doesn't have to.

"You…you didn't," Trent stammers. "You don't…"

Sebastian drops his forehead against his door and sighs.

"How can you…why didn't you tell me!?"

"I only have four days left, Trent!" Sebastian growls. "I finally found something in my life that I might have a chance to call mine - that can make me happy - and I only have four days to enjoy it. So forgive me if I wanted to be alone with him!"

Trent doesn't move, but Sebastian can't stand being in his friend's stricken presence any longer.

"Look," he says, removing Trent's hand roughly and opening his door, "I will be king for the rest of my life. I'll be trapped down here, and I'll probably turn into some sort of disgusting, morbid bottom-feeder, like my father has. All I'm asking for is four lousy days…" Sebastian storms into his room, stopping inside the doorway. "I thought that maybe you would understand."

Sebastian slams the door in Trent's face and throws himself down onto his bed, squeezing his eyes shut to capture any last memories of Kurt's soothing song to lull him to sleep.

* * *

><p>"So, are you really a prince, or are you just trying to impress me?" Kurt asks, tossing a handful of green leaves into the orange flame, turning the fire a deep sapphire blue. Sebastian applauds as he watches Kurt pick up a different handful of flowers and toss them into the flame, turning the fire an even deeper violet.<p>

"Nope, I am a bona fide prince, I promise you that," Sebastian says. "I tried to tell you last night, but then we got invaded."

Kurt thinks back on the moment his mother arrived, remembering that he had shoved Sebastian into the water mid-speech.

"Oh," Kurt says with a blush of pink to match the flame, "right." He dusts the pollen from his hands and walks over to where Sebastian has been sitting on the branch, watching Kurt at work. "Should I call you _your highness _then?" Kurt jokes. "Or will _your majesty_ work?

"No! Never!" Sebastian says, reeling backward and pretending to vomit. Kurt raises an eyebrow but laughs lightly at the sprite's immature antics. "You're a prince, too, so I would say your station and my station cancel each other out."

Kurt bobs his head as he thinks it over.

"I agree," he says. "No titles then. Just Kurt and Sebastian."

"Right," Sebastian says, settling back onto the branch. "Kurt and Sebastian."

"So what is it like where you live? Under the water?" Kurt asks, swinging his legs back and forth, the soles of his feet barely brushing over the surface of the water. "It seems so dark and kind of spooky to me from up here."

"It's not that at all," Sebastian says, his chest puffing up with pride at the thought of Kurt showing interest in his kingdom. Sebastian looks down into the pool for an example, but all he sees is inky black. "Well, okay, there are places that are spooky," he amends quickly. "It can be dark and cold definitely, but mostly it's glorious."

"Really?" Kurt asks, his eyes lighting with the glow of the flame crackling and spinning a short distance away. "What's glorious about it?"

"I don't even know where to start," Sebastian says, dipping down into the water and then climbing back up onto the branch, a habit he'd developed to combat the drying heat of the flame. "There is so much life under the sea, plants and animals of every color. It can be kind of overwhelming, but it's also so peaceful at times."

He sees Kurt's head bow, his wistful smile creeping toward a frown.

"Like…like up here, right?" Sebastian asks, wondering why Kurt's smile has suddenly gone. "The peaceful night sky, the colorful flowers, the forest and all its creatures here to keep you company…"

"The fire keeps the sea calm," Kurt says. "It protects the fairies from the water, but…it also keeps the animals away. It's actually rather lonely for me out here."

"Well, what about during the day?" Sebastian asks. "When you're not guarding the fire?"

"Then I am at the palace, learning what I need to know to become king. It takes up most of the day, all of my time. My mother is...how shall I put it…vigilant."

"So, in that large palace of yours with all of those fairies…you don't have any friends?" Sebastian watches Kurt pick up a petal and set it down gently on the water, pushing at it with his toe until it spins around and drifts away.

"No," Kurt says. "None but my sister Rachel, and she can be kind of a pain."

Kurt chuckles dryly and Sebastian tries to smile. He tilts his head as he watches the fire fairy look down at his reflection in the water.

"What would happen to you if you went into the water?" Sebastian asks.

Kurt's eyes grow wide, but not with fear. Sebastian can see Kurt consider the possibilities of visiting his kingdom beneath the sea, even though he knows it's impossible.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Kurt asks, leaning forward.

"Of course," Sebastian says, moving closer. He'd really like to touch Kurt, to feel what the heat of Kurt's skin would do to the cool of his hand, but he keeps his hands locked to the branch.

Kurt's eyes shift uneasily left and right, searching for ears in the forest that might overhear.

"I have touched the water," Kurt confesses, "only briefly. Out of curiosity. And that is fine. But if I were to submerge myself, I would die." Kurt turns his head to the flame, eying the flickering orange light. "We all come from the fire. It lives within us. It keeps us young and alive forever. If I were to go beneath the water, like any fire fairy, that fire would be extinguished."

Sebastian's spirits fall. There's no way he could visit Kurt for long on land. The safety of this cove is as far as he dares go. He would dry out without the water, and the daylight would kill him.

So maybe being together wouldn't be a possibility, but at least as king he could end this feud, and then he and Kurt would have no need to hide.

Only four more days…

"Too bad," Sebastian says, kicking his own feet, letting his toes form runs and ripples over the water's surface. "It would be nice for you to visit the sea – to see my world. To feel the water on your skin, how it can be calming and soothing…"

"I don't think the water would feel the same to me as it does to you," Kurt says.

Kurt sighs, catching his reflection again when the ripples on the water cease. Kurt turns to the fire, which is snapping and glimmering cheerfully in a way Kurt can't recall seeing before. When he turns to Sebastian to mention it, the sprite is staring at Kurt strangely.

"Why do you look at me that way?" Kurt asks.

"In what way?" Sebastian asks, jerking back.

"In…that way," Kurt says, not knowing exactly how to explain it. "Like you've lost something, or you've found something. It's a little…unnerving."

"I'm sorry," Sebastian says, not looking away. "It's only that…"

"Only that what?"

Sebastian reaches down into the water with his cupped hands, bringing up some water and pouring it over his hair and down his face. Kurt watches the water drip down his body, each droplet reflecting the light like a prism across his skin, and for a moment he becomes a beacon – and that beacon calls to Kurt.

Everything about Sebastian calls to him.

His voice, his eyes, his skin, his hands, his smile, his laugh…

"I would like to kiss you."

Kurt's eyes, which had been chasing the beads of water as they dripped along Sebastian's skin, fly back up to his face.

"What is it to kiss?" Kurt asks, mulling over the unfamiliar word.

Sebastian feels his cheeks redden. Who knew he would need to explain a kiss?

"It's when you like someone, and they like you, and you press your lips to theirs."

Kurt thinks on Sebastian's explanation for a second, then makes a face.

"Ugh!" he exclaims, shaking his head. "That sounds foul!"

Sebastian rolls his eyes and looks away. Kurt looks at Sebastian's lips, focusing on the way they pull down at the corners as his expression changes, on his tongue running over them slowly.

"Have you ever kissed anyone?" Kurt asks shyly, paying more attention to Sebastian's lips than he has ever paid attention to anyone's before.

"No," Sebastian admits. "I've never really liked anyone like that. Besides, I'm royalty, and no one kisses royalty but royalty."

The fairy and the sprite grow quiet, swinging their legs over the water.

"_I_ am royalty," Kurt says softly.

"Yeah," Sebastian agrees, eying the fairy prince as he contemplates his next move. Kurt slides down the branch, moving up to Sebastian, feeling his own fire cool as Sebastian's skin absorbs his heat. Sebastian's skin turns a light shade of rosy pink where Kurt's skin brushes against it, but it doesn't burn.

It tingles.

"So, would it be…" Kurt whispers, leaning closer, pausing a moment to see what Sebastian will do, "like this?" Kurt fits his lips to Sebastian's mouth – slowly, unsure. Sebastian stops breathing – or his breath is stolen away, but the first touch of Kurt's lips against his own feel like falling too fast, like plummeting down to that bottomless abyss with no one to stop him.

But Sebastian doesn't want to stop falling – not for a minute.

Then Kurt pulls away and the kiss is done – over too quickly, his fairy too far away.

"Close," Sebastian says, clearing his throat awkwardly as Kurt stares at him, nervously awaiting a reaction. "But, maybe we could try it like this…"

Sebastian reaches out a hand, pausing at the level of Kurt's neck to get used to the sting of heat on his fingertips. He carefully threads his fingers through Kurt's hair and pulls him close. Kurt's lips on his are surprisingly cool, and Kurt smells like the flowers he gathers in the meadow that he feeds to the fire, his hair soft like their petals. Sebastian feels himself engulfed in light, the flame behind them moving through the spectrum of colors from pink to green to blue and then gold. He can hear Kurt humming in his ears as he slides his lips against his and it becomes a song – a new song, one he's never sun before.

Kurt pulls away when he hears the sizzling of Sebastian's skin.

Sebastian drops down in the water, cooling his skin, quelling his blush, calming down the erratic pounding of his heart. He bobs up from the water and looks up into Kurt's worried face.

"How was…how was that?" Sebastian asks, climbing back up onto the branch, his skin returning to its normal color.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asks, his hands hovering in the air, prepared to do…something.

"I'm fine," Sebastian says, grinning wide and bright like the quarter moon. "Actually, I'm better than fine."

"Do you…do you think you might want to do that again?" Kurt asks.

"Only if you want to-umph!"

Sebastian stops talking when Kurt's mouth is on his again, and Sebastian smiles. Kurt kisses Sebastian harder, and Sebastian wraps his arms around him, stopping every so often to dip his arms into the water. But the longer they kiss, the more Sebastian can withstand the heat of Kurt's skin, until nothing about Kurt burns him anymore.

Sebastian doesn't want to leave Kurt. In the end, it takes another sharp shove back into the water from Kurt to get Sebastian to remember that daylight had already started skating across the ocean, reaching its fingers out to touch them.

All night spent kissing Kurt, Sebastian couldn't stop thinking about bringing Kurt with him under water. There has to be a way, even if it is for only a little while – just long enough to show Kurt his kingdom, his castle, and all the incredible beauty of life beneath the sea.

Besides his father (and he had no intention of asking him) Sebastian can think of only one creature in the sea who might know a way…but she is going to be pretty hard to get to.


	6. Chapter 6

The sun rises, the sky turns gold, and Kurt can't stop smiling.

There's a new spring in his dance, a new song in his heart, and the flame – glowing in shades of champagne and primrose – has never looked happier.

Elizabeth smiles as she takes a hidden moment to watch her son dance, relieved that he seems joyful and carefree. Kurt tosses his flowers into the flame, and the fire rises high into the sky, bending and swaying with him as he leaps into the air. Elizabeth drops down onto the branch, giggling delightedly at the giddy expression on her son's grinning face.

"That's a lovely song, my son," the queen comments. "Is it new?"

Kurt stops twirling and immediately bows, so lost in his thoughts of Sebastian that he had lost track of the rising sun and the imminent arrival of his mother.

"What?" Kurt hadn't been intentionally singing a different tune, but as his thoughts drifted to Sebastian's kisses, he couldn't help himself. "Yes," he says. "Yes, it's something I've been trying. Something new for the fire."

Elizabeth watches her son's eyes dart away guiltily, his cheeks color, his upper lip quiver, and she knows.

A mother always knows.

"And, does the _fire_ like it?" Elizabeth asks, gathering up the flowers from the meadow nearby, noticing the petals that litter the water, set adrift through the night.

"Y-yes," Kurt says, tossing his last handful of petals into the flame. "Very much so, I think. But it's not a complete song, yet. Just a few strains. I'm not even sure that I like it, to tell you the truth."

"A-ha," his mother says, throwing her first batch of flowers onto the fire and watching the colors change from the intense turquoise that Kurt had managed to cull to a more sedate sky blue. "It's a love song that you are singing."

"Is…is it?" Kurt stammers, looking from his mother's perceptive eyes to the still water. "To tell you the truth, I hadn't really noticed it."

Elizabeth leaves the flame to devour the remainder of the flowers and leaves while she walks over to her son. She peers over his shoulder, the reflection of her face joining his, framed by the petals floating all around.

"Sweetheart, you're going to become king in three days," she says, combing his hair back into place with her fingers. "Right now is not a good time for you to fall in love."

Kurt thinks of Sebastian and swallows a sob.

"Will there ever be a good time?" Kurt asks, looking past his reflection and far beyond the pool, out to the open ocean.

Kurt hears his mother sigh behind him. He folds his arms over his chest, raising his hands to cover hers where they rest on his shoulders.

"No, my darling," she says, resting her forehead against his temple, wishing she could use her powers to rid him of his pain. "It will never be a good time. So whoever this boy is, I suggest you forget about him."

* * *

><p>Sebastian emerges from the forest of kelp – exposed, vulnerable, out of his depth and miles beyond the borders of his kingdom. The kelp forest is farther than he has ever traveled alone, but he doesn't have to go too far before he spots whom he's come for. Sue - an ancient sea turtle and one of the oldest living creatures beneath the sea. A recluse, she spends most of her time terrorizing errant water sprites who wander too far from the castle, and grazes in the jellyfish fields far beyond the boundaries of where it is deemed safe for any sprite to go…especially one of royal blood.<p>

Sebastian watches her list from side to side, her massive flippers pushing the water around her. He swims up behind her slowly, keeping an eye out for other fish, especially jellyfish who might look to capture him – or eat him. There's not much use for political prisoners out here in the deep – this much he knows for certain. He's nearly upon her when she spins around quickly, locking him in the gaze of her large, round, coal-black eyes – eyes full of experience and intelligence, but not an inch of compassion. She stares at him impatiently, every line in her face creasing in vexation at his presence as she chews lazily at a translucent jellyfish, which wrenches back and forth sickly in an effort to escape her bite.

"Now why would you try a stupid thing like sneaking up on me?" she mutters with her mouth full.

Sebastian remembers from numerous etiquette lessons that sea turtles like to be flattered, spoken to with an extraordinary measure of respect worthy of their incredible age – and, according to his teacher, to overdo it. So Sebastian bows low in her sight, and humbling himself, begins to speak.

"Oh, great and wise sea turtle, revered queen of the open ocean, guardian of…"

"Cut the crap," the turtle gripes, spitting out the struggling jellyfish and then clamping back down on it with her jaws, "just skip to the end where you tell me what the hell you want. I'm eating here, and looking at your ugly mug gives me indigestion."

Sebastian frowns, but bites his tongue quickly to keep from saying anything that will make her angry.

"I want to know, wise turtle, if there is any way a fire fairy can visit my father's kingdom beneath the sea?"

The turtle narrows her eyes at him, chewing with her mouth slightly open. He sees the mangled jellyfish making a last ditch effort to break free. Suddenly, he wants to be sick. Sue looks at Sebastian's expression and gulps down the squiggling remains of her lunch.

"Don't feel sorry for him, Your Highness," Sue says with a smirk. "Stupid brainless things, jellyfish. Can't make a single decision for themselves. That's why they're so easy to catch." She takes one last huge swallow to force it down and then belches in Sebastian's face. He raises his hands and covers his mouth to keep from losing everything in his stomach. "Now, why would you want to bring one of those flitty little porcelain playthings down here to paradise with us?" Sue asks.

"I have my reasons," Sebastian says, not deterred by her sarcasm.

Sue watches the sprite closely, thinking for an uncomfortably long time before she speaks again.

"You've fallen in love with one of them, haven't you?" Sue laughs, spinning onto her back nimbly and then righting herself again. "Oh for heaven's sake! Your dad's going to have field day if he ever finds out," she proclaims with a cruel glimmer in her eyes.

"He's not _going_ to find out," Sebastian says, his voice changing from respectful to a clear warning. She glares into his eyes, challenging the young prince's authority, but seeing his determination, she shrugs her front flippers, deciding that defying him is not worth her time.

"Well, be that as it may, there is nowhere beneath the water where a fire fairy will be safe, so you might as well forget your silly notions about bringing one down here," she grumbles, turning her prodigious body around slowly and preparing to leave.

"I have seen hot things beneath the ocean before," Sebastian argues, "so there has to be a way."

"Oh, you have, have you, young prince?" Sue asks with a wicked chuckle. "And what happens to fire that is brought beneath the sea?"

"Well, it…"

"I'll tell you," Sue cuts in. "It turns cold, it turns black, and then it dies. You know that this is true. And anything you can come up with will only prolong the inevitable." Sue shakes her huge head. "But if you don't believe me, go ahead and bring your fairy down here. Watch it turn blue and cold and freeze to death. Watch the light in its eyes go out." The turtle swims up close to him, stopping nose to nose. "You know, death for a fire fairy under the ocean is slow and excruciatingly painful. I wouldn't wish it on anybody."

Sebastian thinks about Kurt beneath the ocean – his pale skin turning a unnaturally blue, his vibrant eyes going dark, the last breath in his body turning into bubbles and floating away with the tide.

"Do you really want my advice, Prince Sebastian?" the turtle asks, swimming up close until Sebastian can see his face reflecting back at him in her shiny black eyes.

"Yes," Sebastian says, willing to do anything to find a way. "Yes, please."

"Forget about your fire fairy," Sue says, sounding not the least bit apologetic. "You are going to become king of all the oceans. So why don't you start by growing up?"

Sebastian feels his heart sink. With a smile of satisfaction on her fat, green lips, the turtle turns and leaves the prince in her wake, paralyzed by her words.

* * *

><p>Twilight is falling, and the undersea kingdom is in an uproar when Sebastian returns. Guards pour out of the castle, armed and dressed in armor, heading in all directions. Amid the chaos of soldiers deploying, Trent manages to find the prince and drag him over to a secluded wall.<p>

"Sebastian! Where have you been?" Trent asks, looking tremendously relieved. "Your father has been looking all over for you!"

"What the hell is going on here?" Sebastian asks, looking around him at all the activity.

"There's been another jellyfish attack," Trent says. "When I couldn't find you, knowing where you've been going, I feared the worse."

"Where was the attack?" Sebastian asks. "Is anybody hurt?"

"The king doesn't have that information yet," Trent says. "But it was a small colony over by the outer kelp forest."

Sebastian looks at Trent with confusion in his eyes.

"Wait…did you say the outer kelp forest?"

"Yeah," Trent says. "Why?"

"I just came from there," Sebastian says, ignoring the returning look of hurt on Trent's face. "There was no attack. The king's intel is wrong. Who gave him this information?"

"I don't know," Trent says, moving along the wall with Sebastian and heading inside the castle. "But from what I heard it's a reliable source."

"No, it isn't," Sebastian says, rushing with Trent in tow toward his father's throne room. "It's a set-up."

The castle is hollow, abandoned, with the bulk of its inhabitants amassing outside and guarding the gates. Sebastian can hear generals barking orders, preparing to send soldiers to the kelp forests. Sebastian races down the hall and bursts through the ornate double doors to the king's throne room where his father sits, staring out the window, watching as his people rush to protect their kingdom.

"Father," Sebastian says, bowing to the king.

"And here is my disgraceful son," Malek says, wide yellow eyes still staring out the window. "To what do I owe the displeasure of your company?"

"Father," Sebastian says, pushing Malek's insults aside, "you have to call the troops back."

"Why should I do that, Sebastian?" Malek asks, shifting his huge tentacles on the floor, moving to a different window.

"Because whatever information you have is wrong," Sebastian says. "I have a feeling that our kingdom is being set up. Why, I don't know, but someone is intent on starting a war, and they're using you to do it."

Malek sits quietly, barely moving as his eyes follow the lines of soldiers gathering outside his window.

"And why should I listen to you?" Malek asks, his voice making the whole room echo with its resonance. "Even if what you say is the truth, you have shown yourself to be spoiled, disobedient, unworthy."

"Father," Sebastian says, trying to stand firm before his king, "I beg you to listen to me. What I say to you is the truth."

Malek doesn't comment on his son's pleas, moving back again to the first window and staring up into the water.

Sebastian looks to Trent who nods at him encouragingly.

"I have just come from the kelp forest, Great King," Sebastian says. "There is no army there. There's been no attack. I swear this to you."

Malek sighs his discontent.

"Tell me, Sebastian," Malek says, turning to face his son, "why were you in the kelp forest to begin with? Your present duties did not require you to travel to those reaches of our kingdom."

Sebastian stares at his father dumbly, the truth dangling from his lips.

"I…" he begins, "I…can't tell you why, Father."

Malek's yellow eyes burn with frustration and rage.

"What!?" Malek roars. Trent drops to his knees with his hands over his ears.

"It was personal business of my own," Sebastian says, the closest thing to the truth that he can bring himself to admit. "Be angry with me if you want to, but Father, you are making a mistake!" Sebastian says in a raised voice. "You've been played. Someone is using you to start a war, but it doesn't need to be that way. Call back your troops now!" Malek bares sharp, black teeth at his son, and Sebastian gets down on his knees before his father. "Please. We can put an end to this now, Father. Don't be a pawn. Don't be a part of this slaughter. You want me to be a good king, and I'm trying to be. Listen to me."

Malek's expression doesn't change. His tentacles coil into knots, like fists, and some of them pound the floor.

"If you are as loyal to this kingdom as you say, son," Malek sneers, "then prove it. Go outside, stand a post, and defend this castle."

Sebastian gazes out the window at the fading light crawling up toward the surface with a single thought in his mind.

_Kurt_.

"But…"

"Stand a post, defend this castle, and then you might regain some of my trust," Malek says, leaving the hall and disregarding his son.

Trent walks up beside him, nudging him on the shoulder and handing him a trident – a weapon reserved for royalty. Sebastian takes the trident and twirls it once in his hand, setting the base on the floor with a heavy _thunk_. Trent smiles, giving Sebastian an approving pat on the back, glad to see his prince back where he belongs.

Sebastian looks back out the window, in the direction of the cove, in the forbidden waters that would take him to Kurt.

"I'm sorry, Kurt," Sebastian says, watching the light as it disappears up into the waves. "I'm so sorry."

* * *

><p>Kurt tries to hide his excitement as he rushes to the cove, eager to see Sebastian again. He heard what his mother said, and had given it a fair amount of thought, but he decides in the end that he doesn't care. They still have a few days left till the eclipse. If that's all they are given, then Kurt will take it.<p>

Besides, he knows what this is between them. It's love, and love thrives, it endures. Maybe if they put their heads together, they will be able to find a way.

There will be plenty of putting their heads together if Sebastian kisses him again.

Kurt is surprised when he reaches the cove and Sebastian isn't there, hiding in the weeds and waiting for him to arrive like he had the night before, but Kurt isn't discouraged. He sings his new song as he dances around the flame, adorning the water with petals, weaving the flowers into his own hair, and hoping that somewhere beneath the water his music will reach Sebastian, wherever he is.

But it never does, and Sebastian doesn't return.


	7. Chapter 7

When Elizabeth returns to the cove in the morning, she finds her son – the sanguine, romantic soul who had been dancing and singing happily the morning before – lying on the branch beside the flame, his eyes red and swollen from crying, picking petals out of the water and tossing them into the fire. With each new flower burned the flame reaches out to comfort him, but Kurt shoos it away.

She lights on the branch beside him and Kurt sits up, pushing the remaining petals away, watching as they float to the opposite side of the pool. She puts a hand to his back and rubs soothing circles into his skin, her heart heavy with her son's woe.

"It's for the best, my love," Elizabeth says, kissing Kurt on the forehead. "It would have hurt more later on…I promise you."

Kurt leans his head against his mother's shoulder and cries – ugly, unattractive sobs, not at all befitting a prince, but his mother doesn't judge him. She simply lets her son cry himself to sleep in her arms, and then lays him down in the cool, green meadow grass to sleep beneath the soothing light of the sun.

* * *

><p>Sebastian watches the dark water turn bright as rays from the sun light the ocean. He watches them travel along the surface, marking time as they go, and then slowly begin to fade, all from his post on the north wall – the farthest position from any real action should a jellyfish attack come.<p>

Which Sebastian knows there won't be…because there was no attack in the kelp forest, and there is no jellyfish army on its way. With any luck, the soldiers deployed to the jellyfish fields won't find enough jellyfish to consider them a threat. Sue's words roll through his head over and over. _Stupid brainless things. Can't make a single decision for themselves._ These attacks by the jellyfish had started only months ago, and every one of them had left a bad taste in Sebastian's mouth, like there was something else – something else behind them.

The jellyfish had always been peaceful, nomadic creatures, drifting here and there with the tides, not bothering with the problems of other beings living beneath the sea. What could they possibly gain by starting a war? Why on earth would they start now?

His father might realize all of this if he would just listen, if he would respect a single word that Sebastian said. He'd been trying to get his father to see reason since this whole odd business began, but never once did Malek care about any opinion Sebastian had.

Eventually Sebastian stopped trying at all.

He'd wasted a night on this ludicrous folly and for what?

Nothing. He has no honor as far as his dad is concerned, no respect, and now, probably no Kurt.

He has two nights left to spend with Kurt before his coronation, and he isn't going to waste that time waiting for an attack that is never going to happen.

"Here, Trent," he says, relinquishing his trident and removing his armor.

"Wha-wait!" Trent says in a low, surprised voice. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"

"This is a mistake," Sebastian says. "This whole thing is a mistake, and you know it."

"But, you have to…"

"I have to what, Trent?" Sebastian asks. "Stand here while the hours drip by and Kurt moves farther and farther away from me? I don't have that kind of time."

"But, the jellyfish…"

"There is not going to be a jellyfish attack," Sebastian assures his friend. "There's something else going on here."

"Then, you and me should go find out what it is!" Trent insists. "We need to discover once and for all what's going on in this kingdom."

"Why?" Sebastian asks with a bitter laugh. "So my father can insult me again? Tell me I'm useless, that my opinions don't matter?" Sebastian shakes his head. "No. I can't serve this kingdom at all until I become king. I have two days left and I'm not spending them standing against a wall."

Sebastian claps a shell-shocked Trent on the upper arm and scurries away. He sneaks down below the coral, coming up through the center of an ancient gorgonian. Taking to the shadows, he swims up toward the surface.

Trent watches Sebastian go with sad eyes, not sure how much longer he can stand by and watch his beloved prince skirt his destiny. Sea King is a heavy burden, not one to be taken lightly. He knows Sebastian has had it rough, and he knows that the prince is trying. But watching him leave, Trent feels unsure for the first time ever that Sebastian will even be coming back.

Trent clutches Sebastian's weapon and his armor to his chest as the dark speck that is Prince Sebastian vanishes into the forbidden waters.

"Watch, Trent," Hunter says, appearing from out of nowhere to whisper in Trent's ear, "as our prince runs on the possible eve of battle."

"There is no cause to believe there will be a battle," Trent says defensively. "That information was false. Prince Sebastian proved it."

"The king didn't think so," Hunter counters with a sneer. "Nonetheless, where do you think he's off to in such a hurry, hmm? Should you chase after him like the trained pet you are and find out?" Hunter steps in front of Trent, filling the other sprite's view. "Or perhaps you know already."

Trent turns protective eyes on Hunter.

"Whatever treachery you are trying to start, you will not start it here," Trent says. "Now move aside."

Trent doesn't wait for Hunter to comply. He blows past Hunter, shoving him roughly out of the way and heads back toward the castle.

* * *

><p>The sun sinks behind the horizon and the stars come out one at a time, filling the black night with their twinkling, silver light.<p>

Kurt spent the whole day asleep beneath the boughs of the trees in the meadow, listening to the sorrowful sound of his mother's song. He'd heard his mother sing to the Eternal Flame before, but this song was one he didn't recognize, the words difficult to decipher as they were in a language he didn't know. In his sleep, he felt tears roll down his cheeks and fall into the grass. While his mother sang, Kurt dreamed of a life with Sebastian, in a place where the sea and the fire didn't keep them apart, where he could swim in the ocean with Sebastian and they could lie together in the sun. A place where peace wasn't maintained by tending a magical flame, and Sebastian didn't leave him every morning before the rising dawn.

It was such a wonderful dream, such a powerful dream, that it almost seemed real.

It was a dream he would have been happy not to wake up from.

His mother rouses him as night begins to fall. He wakes dutifully, kisses her on the cheek, and wordlessly tends the flame. Elizabeth watches her bereft son and sighs. Soon he will be king. He will transform into his fullest fairy self, and all the pains and troubles of this former life will be well behind him.

She takes to the sky, joining the night, and returns to the palace.

There is silence in the cove, even louder than the crackling of the fire or the falling of Kurt's tears. He lets them fall. He doesn't wipe them away. He lets them cut down his face and leave their scars. He doesn't watch his mother fly off, doesn't see her signature golden sparkles color her trail across the sky when she leaves.

He doesn't see the green eyes watching him from the shadows, or the head that bobs above the surface the second his mother is out of sight.

"Kurt!" It's faint, the whisper carried on the wind, but it's too surreal to even wish for so he ignores it, hoping it will fade. "Kurt!" He hears a splash of water, something moving in the pool, coming closer. "Kurt!"

Kurt knows at last that Sebastian is there, and his heart skips, but he doesn't look down to see where the voice is coming from.

"You didn't come last night," Kurt says, looking into the fire, trying not to sound disappointed.

"I know," Sebastian says, rising out of the water to stand on the branch beside Kurt, "and I'm sorry."

"Are you," Kurt says, his bitterness showing through the cracks of his detached façade as he tosses a handful of rose-colored leaves into the flame, turning the fire a vibrant red.

"I am," Sebastian says, raising his hands and placing them on Kurt's shoulders, the heat from the fire drying his skin quickly. "The last thing I wanted to do was stay away from you."

"Then why?" Kurt asks, turning to face him. "Why didn't you come?"

"I…" Sebastian thinks of the day before – visiting the turtle, Sue, arguing with his father, being treated like a failure for the thousandth time. He wants to put it behind him and start new with Kurt. "I can't really explain it," Sebastian says. Kurt shakes his head, looking down at their feet and at the shadows flicking over the water. "But I'm here now, and I promise, I won't stay away again."

"Really?" Kurt asks, lifting his eyes up to meet Sebastian's gaze.

"Really," Sebastian says, wrapping his arms around Kurt's waist and holding him tight. "And I realize that we don't have much time left…"

"Don't," Kurt cuts Sebastian off with a sniffle, shaking his head, begging Sebastian to stop, to put that thought away with all of their problems for now and not think about it until they absolutely have to.

Sebastian sighs, running his fingers through Kurt's hair, kissing the crown of his head.

"I want to…be with you," Sebastian says, brushing Kurt's hair away from his ear and kissing him softly.

"But, you _are_ with me," Kurt replies, closing his eyes and letting Sebastian's lips against his skin carry him away to that hideaway in his dreams where he and Sebastian can live together in peace.

"I know that," Sebastian whispers, "but there are other ways I want to be with you."

Kurt can't imagine what other ways there were to be together. Here they are, sharing a moment, sharing their love, standing in each other's arms, closer than he'd ever been to anyone. What other way is there to be with someone?

"I don't understand," Kurt says.

"Will you let me show you?" Sebastian asks.

Kurt smiles and nods his head.

"Do you trust me?" Sebastian whispers, trailing kisses over Kurt's skin – down his neck, across his shoulders, down his arm to his hand.

"Yes," Kurt says, raising his hand for Sebastian to kiss, but Sebastian takes it instead, tugging Kurt down the branch just short of the water and into the grass, in the same covered area of bent branches where Kurt had slept all day long. He lays the fairy down, soft blue eyes watching as Sebastian lays down beside him.

Kurt furrows his brow, preparing to ask another question, but Sebastian leans over Kurt's body and kisses him - a gentle caress of his lips and tongue against Kurt's mouth. The touch of Sebastian's tongue against his lips sends Kurt reeling with the sensations it creates, swirling and coiling throughout his body. Kurt opens his mouth for Sebastian, wanting more of it, but instead of another kiss, Sebastian's lips travel down Kurt's chin, down his neck, over his smooth chest. Kurt's breath catches as each kiss finds a new patch of skin and claims it, sometimes sucking, sometimes licking, sometimes even nibbling at his skin.

Kurt relishes these new touches, and all the emotions they bring, which his fairy body tries to process one at a time. All of Kurt's life he longed to feel someone touch him, kiss him, hold him. Kurt is loved by his mother, revered by his people, but he is also handled with kid gloves, treated as if he will break, or as if he's too precious to touch. No one but his mother kisses him, no one but his mother and sister hugs him or holds his hand.

Sebastian boldly runs his hands down Kurt's skin, his eyes following where his hands go, and Kurt finds himself rising to meet them. Sebastian kisses him. This mouth on his skin and these hands traveling over his body are new and exciting, but more than that, they're fulfilling. They fill the holes left open by loneliness – by duty and honor that keep him locked in isolation.

"Touch me," Sebastian says, looking up at Kurt with eyes Kurt almost doesn't recognize, wide and black instead of green - and hungry. If it wasn't so exhilarating it would be terrifying.

"Okay," Kurt says, trying to will his hands to move when Sebastian's mouth touches his skin again. He reaches out with trembling fingers and weaves them through Sebastian's hair. He feels Sebastian moan against his skin, and a series of brand new reactions fill him. His body aches, but not painfully. It's more of a need. He _needs_ Sebastian, he needs to be with him.

He feels Sebastian slip his fingers carefully beneath the waist of his pants and Kurt jumps. He stares down and Sebastian looks up, worry written all over his face.

"Is this okay?" Sebastian asks, idly licking along the seam of his lips, the subtle movement making Kurt shiver.

"Yes, please," Kurt says with no real inkling of what it is he's asking for. He only knows that he wants.

He feels Sebastian pull his pants down his legs and fights the urge to cover himself, unsure of what Sebastian will think of the way he looks naked. It's not something he's ever had to consider, and it's strange to think about – uncomfortable even. But then Sebastian climbs up his body and whispers in his ear, "You're gorgeous. Do you know that?" and every trepidation he has strips itself away.

"Let me…" Kurt pauses, swallowing. "Let me see you."

Sebastian hovers over Kurt's body, stopped by the fairy's nervous request.

"Alright," Sebastian says, and holds impossibly still.

Kurt reaches down between them, grabbing hold of Sebastian's pants and tugging down slowly. His eyes leave Sebastian's face and travel down his body to where his hands are removing Sebastian's pants. Kurt gasps – not because of the impressive length standing hard between Sebastian's legs, but because of how alike the two of them seem, how the same their bodies are. They were two sides of a similar entity – the same smooth skin, the same strong features, the same desires, especially in that moment.

"Oh, Kurt," Sebastian whispers into the fairy's hair as he balances up on his toes to help Kurt pull off his pants and then kick them aside. Sebastian doesn't need to tell Kurt what he wants. Kurt feels his way back up Sebastian's body, kissing him softly on his hip, on his thigh, in the hollow of his neck. Sebastian lies down on top of him, and Kurt exhales into Sebastian's shoulder. Sebastian's skin is cool all around him, a soothing balance to the constant heat of Kurt's flesh, and he wonders if this is how non-fire creatures feel – this comfortable middle-ground.

Kurt slides his arms around Sebastian's waist and holds him close.

"Wh-what do we do now?" Kurt asks. Sebastian leans forward and rubs his nose lightly against Kurt's, letting his lips slide back and forth along Kurt's smooth skin.

"You don't have to do anything," Sebastian says, kissing Kurt sweetly on the cheek while he speaks into his ear.

"Then what…"

Sebastian moves, dragging himself against Kurt, sliding his length alongside Kurt's, and Kurt's words die in his mouth.

"Does that feel good?" Sebastian asks, watching Kurt stare past him up into the sky, his mouth hanging open a bit, his lower lip quivering.

"Ye-ahuh," Kurt answers, nodding, words escaping him left and right.

Sebastian chuckles and moves again, biting his own lip so as not to overwhelm the night with the sound of his own moans, eager to hear only the sounds coming from Kurt's mouth. Kurt gasps and the fire on the branch climbs higher. It lights the cove, highlighting the expression of shock and bliss on Kurt's face.

Sebastian's body against Kurt's is the thing he's been missing all those lonely nights alone. He's a fantasy come true, far too perfect to be anything but a part of Kurt's destiny – a sacred and important part. What cruel irony that the two of them should find each other now.

Kurt feels his body tighten, rapturously out of his control. He flows with it, lets it take him, lets _Sebastian_ take him, he realizes, as it's the movement of his body that is causing Kurt to erupt in this way.

"Oh…Sebastian," Kurt whispers, closing his eyes, his back bending, his body rising up to meet him.

"I love you, Kurt," Sebastian mutters into the fairy's neck as he grabs hold of Kurt's hair and pulls him in for a kiss.

"And…I love you," Kurt mumbles through swollen lips.

Kurt's body shudders. It feels like the ground beneath them quakes, and the heat inside him is now all around them, lighting his skin on fire, turning his vision white, bathing the world in a light so bright it blinds him to everything but Sebastian – his love for Sebastian.

How he can no longer see a life without Sebastian in it.

Kurt feels Sebastian shudder, too. He buries his head into the crook of Kurt's neck and cries out, unable to contain it any longer. Kurt relaxes beneath the water sprite with tears in his eyes, wishing that the light could have taken him away with it.

His mother was right. Good-bye is going to be much more agonizing after this.

"What…what was that?" Kurt asks, blushing brightly as his breathing returns to normal. "What we just did?"

"It's an expression of love," Sebastian says, nipping at the corner of Kurt's mouth. "What did you think?"

"That was incredible," Kurt replies with a joyful laugh.

"I'm glad. I thought so, too, but I was afraid you wouldn't like it."

"Is that…is that always done like that?" Kurt asks, kissing Sebastian's lips between words.

"No," Sebastian says, bending his neck so that Kurt will think to kiss him there, "sometimes it's different. Would you like to do that again?"

"Yes," Kurt says. "I want to do everything with you."

"Everything," Sebastian repeats, the beauty of that thought overshadowed by the reality of _one last day_.

They hear several splashes in the nearby pool – loud and clumsy flailing – then a pained groan. Sebastian stands up and grabs his pants, throwing them on quickly and racing to the water's edge to see who had discovered the hidden cove. Sebastian sees pale hands grappling with the still water, skin covered in blisters and hideous burns. Fingers curl into the sky, trying to grab something above water.

The hands find the branch and latch onto it. Bleeding arms follow, then a head.

"Trent!" Sebastian cries, reaching into the water to grab the thrashing sprite and help him up onto the branch. Sebastian lets out a choked sob when he sees his injured friend, examining his many wounds. "What happened?"

Trent looks up at his prince, and then over at the fairy in the grass, scrambling to get dressed. Trent's face crumbles. He scowls at the fairy, staring him down with all the loathing he can muster.

"Trent!" Sebastian barks, shaking his friend slightly.

"It's the jellyfish," Trent pants, choosing to look down at the water instead of up at his friend. "They laid siege on the castle…last night…and your father."

"What about my father?" Sebastian asks, pulling Trent's face up to look at him. "What happened to my father?"

"Your father…" Trent continues, "he thinks you're dead."

_Dead._ His father thinks he's dead. Does Malek, the Great Sea King even care? Sadly enough, that doesn't matter. Sebastian has a responsibility to his people.

One he may have prematurely sidestepped for selfish reasons, but he has no regrets.

"Kurt…I have to…"

"Go," Kurt says, flying to the branch and giving Sebastian one last kiss. "Go to your father. Get this all sorted out."

"I'll come back tomorrow," Sebastian promises, taking Kurt's hands and kissing them, "and we'll have one last night together."

Kurt wants to object, wants to beg Sebastian to think of a way for them to be together forever, but he doesn't have enough time. He nods and kisses Sebastian on the cheek, watching as the two sprites dive into the water.

"Oh, Sebastian," Kurt whispers as they swim out of sight, reaching out a hand and gently touching the water, his fire lighting the pool for a second before fading away.

"A-ha!" a high-pitched voice crows triumphantly from the air behind him. He turns quickly to see Rachel hovering above him with her hands on her hips, beaming down at him with a smug smile on her face. "I knew you were hiding something. Now I'm going to tell Mother everything!"


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** _There is gorgeous art for this fic that can be found at post/101135389031 :)_

"Rachel!" Kurt snaps, standing to confront his sister. "What in the world are you doing outside of the palace? Mother said she would keep you in your room at night!"

Rachel lands on the branch by Kurt, standing confident in the face of her brother's anger, even as his eyes glow at her like twin flames.

"Mother underestimates me," Rachel says, tossing her dark brown curls over her shoulders in a prima donna fashion. She glances down into the water, admiring her own reflection, and notices Kurt's face twitch nervously. Rachel's eyes darken, twinkling viciously. "So _that's_ the reason why you want to be alone here night after night, hmm?" she asks, basking in the drama of the moment. "_That's_ why you had Mother keep me under lock and key every night? Won't she be surprised to find out what you've been doing?"

"It wasn't _my_ decision to lock you up at night," Kurt says, his body filling with rage with no other emotion to buffer it. "It was Mother's decision, but that doesn't mean you didn't deserve it."

Rachel sticks her nose in the air, affronted by her brother's accusation that she may have done anything to deserve punishment.

"You know, I have a golden opportunity to run and tell Mother that you've been fraternizing with our mortal enemy." Rachel's smile grows wicked and wide when Kurt's wings flush a deep, fiery crimson. "I can't even begin to imagine what she might do to you…or to him…"

Kurt tries to swallow back his anger so that he can think clearly and find a way to reason with his sister, but his mind is too clouded by the injustice of being blackmailed by the one person he always considered his best and closest friend.

"How dare you?" Kurt growls. "You horrible, traitorous little snipe!"

Rachel stares at him, her expression switching from hurt to cold in seconds.

"_I'm_ not the traitor here!" she yells. "_You_ are! You're supposed to be king! What did you think you were doing with that…that _filth_?"

Kurt takes a single step up to his sister and slaps her across the face. Rachel's head flies to one side, her hand coming up to cover the reddening handprint on her cheek. Behind her, in response to Kurt's fury, the Eternal Flame climbs up until boughs above them catch the blaze.

Kurt had never before laid a hand on his sister in anger, and she is overwhelmed with shock more than pain. She turns back to her brother, her eyes focusing first on the burning branches above them, and then the simmering fire reflected in his blown, obsidian pupils.

"Don't you ever…" he says, punctuating the words with a threatening sense of calm, "EVER…call him that again. Do you understand me?"

Rachel stumbles a step back, her haughty confidence gone, her mouth opening and closing as she tries to speak.

"I'm…I'm going to te-tell mother…"

"Fine!" Kurt says, pushing his sister back, almost into the fire. "Run and tell mother! Tell her right now! Tell her everything! Tell her…"

"Tell me what?" He hears his mother's voice behind him, unmistakably commanding. She comes between them, looking from son to daughter, trying to make sense of the tension in the cove that has turned the flame completely black. "Rachel! What are you doing out of your room when you had strict orders to stay inside? And Kurt, what is the meaning of setting the trees on fire?"

Kurt and Rachel stare at one another, frozen – Rachel regaining her composure and Kurt losing his completely.

"Kurt?" Queen Elizabeth starts with her son when she notices the change in his attitude from fierce to frightened. "Was there something that you wanted Rachel to tell me?"

Rachel's lip curls with amusement. No longer concerned with the pain in her cheek, she prepares to snitch on her brother, but he beats her to it.

"I don't want to be king!" Kurt cries, dropping to his knees before his mother, folding his hands and pleading with her. "I want to stay a common fairy, and fall in love, and tend the Eternal Flame at night for the rest of my life. Please, Mother? I'll do whatever you say, as long as I get to stay this way! As long as I get to have love, Mother! Please?"

His pleas die and sobs take over. His mother kneels down and gathers him in her arms while Rachel looks on with mouth agape.

"You…you knew?" Rachel mutters, falling quickly to her knees, ready to beg her mother's forgiveness.

"Of course, I knew!" Elizabeth scolds her daughter. "And how dare you torment your brother this way, when you knew he was in pain!"

Elizabeth wraps her arms around Kurt tighter as her son cries.

"Now, Kurt…darling," she says, stroking his hair, "we talked about this. I know how you feel, believe me I do, but the fact is that you will become king during the eclipse and there is nothing that you or I can do to stop it." Kurt sobs harder. He had hoped that his mother, with all of her infinite power, might have a solution, that she might take pity on him and leave him be. Elizabeth shakes her head with disapproval, pulling Kurt's face up so she can look into his eyes. "You have to stop all this childish blubbering and grow up, my love," she says – her tone stern, but with a vein of regret that runs deep within it. "There comes a time when we must put away childish things like love, and do what is right. This is your time now." She wipes the tears from his cheeks with her fingers and cups his chin in her hand. "Don't' be so heartbroken. Embrace it. Embrace your duty and your power and your destiny. You may not be able to keep the love of this one boy you hold so dear, but you have the love of all of your people. Isn't that enough?"

Kurt looks into his mother's eyes, but he can't tell if she actually believes what she's saying. It's pointless, though, because there's no arguing with her. He nods his head once and sniffs back his remaining tears.

"Yes, Mother," he says. "It is enough."

Elizabeth smiles, relieved to have the issue resolved so quickly.

"That's a good boy," she says, kissing his head. She picks out an errant blade of grass from his hair and tosses it away, watching it as it flutters through the air and to the ground.

_He must have been here_, she thinks. _Rachel must have caught them…_

She wants to gasp in shock, but she refrains. As disappointed as she is with her son, she is livid with her daughter.

But this isn't the time for anger. There needs to be peace between them before Kurt's transformation. These bad feelings have lingered long enough.

"I think that for tonight, we should all three tend the fire, and meet the morning together," Elizabeth says, lifting her son to his feet, and gesturing for her daughter to come near. Rachel rises to her feet, but keeps her eyes cast down on her clasped hands as she approaches her mother and brother. "We have so little time left together," Elizabeth adds. "After the eclipse, a great many things will change. Let us spend this time together as a family who loves one another. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Kurt says softly, knowing it's what he is expected to say.

"Agreed," Rachel mumbles, peeking up at her brother who scowls back at her.

"Good," Elizabeth says, letting the two fairies go and scooting them toward the fire.

Kurt doesn't want to be out in the cove tending the flame. He wants to retire to his room and weep properly. But he comforts himself with the thought that this gives him the opportunity to keep an eye on his sister, in case she gets it into her head to try and elaborate to their mother who this love of his life really is.

* * *

><p>Sebastian and Trent swim down to the undersea kingdom together in stiff but companionable silence. Trent doesn't ask Sebastian for an explanation of what he witnessed in the meadow, and Sebastian doesn't offer one. Initially, Trent felt betrayed, finding Sebastian with a fairy, obviously having spent the evening being intimate while a huge battle had raged below the sea. But now, as they head back to the castle, back to Malek and a full war council who will more than likely crucify Sebastian if they find out about his new love, Trent feels strangely protective. Enemy or not, Kurt loves Sebastian. He doesn't judge him. He makes Sebastian happy. Even if their affair only lasts one more night and they never see each other again, Trent doesn't want anyone ruining it.<p>

Luckily, Trent is the only other sprite who knows, and he intends on keeping his lips sealed.

As they swim closer to the ocean floor, Sebastian sees the devastation the jellyfish army wrought – homes destroyed, the castle gates torn apart, the coral garden singed black and marked with tendril-shaped scars. He doesn't see any bodies, though those could have been collected already, awaiting burial.

Sebastian doesn't stall. He doesn't hide. He walks proudly into the castle and straight to the throne room, where he can hear overlapping voices argue, layering one on top of the other, growing louder and louder as a new disgruntled voice chimes in.

With so much talking, Sebastian wonders who could possibly be listening?

"So, you're not dead after all. And it seems you were wrong, my son," Malek says with thick contempt the moment Sebastian's footsteps echo inside the crowded throne room. The cacophony of voices fall silent when the king speaks, with everyone waiting on the beveled edge to see what he has to say. "There _was_ a jellyfish army, and they did indeed attack…"

"I know, Father, but…"

"And when they did," Josiah, the king's steward, cuts in, "_you_ were nowhere to be found."

Sebastian resists the urge to throw the man a look, his attention spent solely on his father.

"Where did you run off to, my son?" Malek asks.

"I'll tell you where he was…" Hunter's voice echoes in from the doorway as he rushes up to the throne and bows before the king. "He was out beyond the forbidden waters, _making love_ to a fire fairy."

The silence in the room is filled again with voices aiming remarks of disgust and incredulity Sebastian's way. Hunter faces Sebastian, smiling deviously, and Trent reflexively steps between them, ready to defend his prince.

"Is this true?" Malek asks, his voice a signal that quiets the muttering.

Sebastian looks around the room, at the faces of those already judging him. If he ever had any chance of proving himself worthy of being king, that chance has just been lost.

"Yes, my king," Sebastian admits with head held high. "It is true."

"What?" Malek roars, his voice rising above the gasps and hisses that follow Sebastian's confession. "Traitor!"

"No!" Sebastian counters in an equally loud and commanding voice. "We are not at war with the fire fairies! There has been no battle between us and the fire fairies for countless generations! Besides, Prince Kurt and I are in love."

"What _love_?" Hunter asks with a snide chuckle. "He's probably just trying to lower your defenses – make you vulnerable. They've probably been planning some sort of attack for a while now!"

"What?" Sebastian asks. "How can you logically believe that? The fire fairies can't even come under the water or they'll die! How are they going to invade our kingdom?"

"They've been our mortal enemies for centuries," Hunter announces to the room in an attempt to sway those gathered to his side, "and it seems they've found a weakness." He waves a hand in Sebastian's direction.

"Yes," Josiah agrees, stepping forward with his son. "I think the fire fairies have been living comfortably long enough. It's time to take care of that threat once and for all."

"No!" Sebastian says, charging up to Josiah, coming nose to nose with the older man who arrogantly does not back down in the presence of the impassioned prince. "I won't let you go near them! They've done nothing to us! Why should we be enemies of the fire fairies?" Sebastian turns back to his father, who looks at his son with only a vague interest. "Why do we engage in all these battles? These feuds need to end. Some of them are so ancient that no one even remembers how they started, or why. There is no reason at all for this irrational hate. We need to stop this isolation. We need to bring our races together, not keep the world at arm's length!"

Sebastian eyes his father, who seems lost in thought. He walks toward the king with fearful optimism, hoping some of his words might finally be sinking in.

Malek stretches out his long tentacles and takes hold of the floor beneath him. He moves his hulking body, using his tentacles as leverage. He circles his mass around to address all of those waiting patiently to see how the Sea King will respond to his son. There are many in the hall blindly loyal to the king, but equally as many eager for the start of Prince Sebastian's reign. Malek knows all of their eyes are on him. He sighs heavily, as he is want to do when he feels that his son has said or done something irritating and ignorant – which is quite often.

"From this day forward," Malek proclaims in a booming voice, "Prince Sebastian is an enemy of this kingdom…"

Trent gasps. Hunter and Josiah pat one another on the back with matching Cheshire grins plastered to their conniving faces. The assembly in the room explodes into an uproar of dueling voices, rising higher and higher to be heard. Amidst the chaos, Sebastian only stares at his father. Of all the things he ever imagined his father capable of, he never dreamed of this.

"He will be imprisoned in the dungeon as a traitor," Malek finishes. "Guards, arrest him."

"No!" Trent yells boldly, making to draw his weapon, but Sebastian leaps on him, holding his hands, shaking his head.

"I had hoped for so much for you, my son," Malek says, turning away from the skirmish the way the old king does every time he dismisses his son.

"But, the kingdom," Josiah says, speaking up with cocky assurance, "we need a new king. What ever shall we do now with the only heir to the throne disavowed?" His eyes find Sebastian glaring back at him, huddled beside his friend as the royal guards begin to close in around them.

"The coronation will still take place," Malek says importantly, "on schedule, when I will crown Lord Trent King of the Realm."

Trent's jaw drops open, and he nearly fumbles his weapon. Sebastian's head snaps up to look at him, a weirdly proud smile on his face.

"Go, Trent," he whispers, and winks at his gobsmacked friend.

"No!" Hunter screams. "But…but _I'm_ supposed to be next in line for the throne!"

"_I_ am the king," Malek says in a slightly bored manner, as if nothing taking place in his throne room actually concerns him. "I decide who gets the crown. If I can take it away from my son, then I can give it to whomever I chose. _Trent_ has repeatedly proven himself loyal, obedient, fair-minded and just. _He_ will be the king."

"No!" Hunter continues to complain, storming forward. His father grabs his arm and tries to restrain him, hissing an overly conspicuous, _"Shut up!"_

"I will not _shut_ _up_!" Hunter shouts, pulling away from his father and barreling toward Trent, hidden behind the armed guards. "I worked too hard for too long to be passed over like this!"

"Worked hard at what?" Sebastian asked, narrowing his eyes at Hunter's spontaneous confession. Sebastian stares into eyes that suddenly appear blood red and unhinged. "What did you do?"

"Those stupid, asinine jellyfish!" Hunter bellows, flailing left and right at anyone who approaches. "I did not do all of this so that this blubbering pile of fish guts -" he yells, stabbing a finger in Trent's direction, "could become king over me!"

Hunter pulls out a knife and lunges at Trent, trying to impale him from beyond the row of guards - no longer the smooth talking, contemptible fiend he had been, but now a desperate villain. He swipes the knife through the air, his movements without aim or control, and manages to slice one of the guards shallowly in the arm.

"Traitors," Malek mutters beneath his breath, turning a little of his attention back to the sprite attempting to assassinate his new heir apparent. "Arrest him as well…him and his horrid father."

The guards forget about Sebastian and rush Hunter, grabbing his arms and legs, dragging him away as he screams, carrying him from the throne room.

"And what about Prince Sebastian?" Trent asks, shielding his friend from the circle of guards. "He was right all along about the jellyfish."

"Hmmm," Malek hums, shaking his head, "be that as it may, his association with the fire fairy is still grounds for treason. My original ruling stands. He will be imprisoned for his crime…indefinitely."

Guards come forward to claim Sebastian again and Trent pushes in front of him, trying to hold them back.

"No! I refuse to be king!" Trent yells to Malek, arms outstretched to block Sebastian. The guards, flummoxed by whether or not they should physically remove Trent, their soon-to-be-king, stand fast and await orders. "I only recognize one prince in our kingdom," Trent says, standing tall, eyes fixed on his king. "There can be no other king in our realm but Sebastian."

Malek opens his mouth to speak but Sebastian puts up a hand to stop him. He doesn't expect his father to abide by his wishes, but the great king sits back on his massive tentacles and watches the drama unfold.

"You wish to honor me?" Sebastian asks his friend.

"Of course I do," Trent says.

"You will still do what I command?"

"Always, my prince," Trent promises, his voice the epitome of despair.

"Then do one last thing for me," Sebastian says, rounding in front of him and placing a hand atop Trent's shoulder.

"Anything," Trent says, returning the gesture. Their whole friendship, all their lives spent together, comes down to this one request - Trent would stake his life on it.

"Rule in my stead. Be a wise and fair king…" Sebastian moves forward and leans his forehead against Trent's. "And take care of yourself, buddy."

Sebastian gives Trent's shoulder a squeeze, then lets go and backs away. The guards gather around him, one on each side, one ahead and one behind.

"Your Highness?" one guard addresses him kindly and Sebastian nods.

With a final sweep of the throne room, sparing a single glare for his father, he turns and strides proudly from the hall.


	9. Chapter 9

Sebastian paces the floor of his cell, back and forth, back and forth, trying to figure a way out. He's never been trapped in a place or a situation that he couldn't escape, but his father might just have him beat this time. The dungeons are in the lowest part of the castle, beneath the sea floor. It has multiple levels and spirals down, down, down, like the inverted cone of a conch shell. His cell is on the upper level – a simple recess cut into smooth rock. It's long enough for him to lie down on the floor, but shallow widthwise. In front of him is a single door of coral bars and beyond that, two armed guards who no longer recognize him as heir to the throne.

In his many explorations of the castle growing up, Sebastian made it a point not to go down into the dungeons. This is the kind of place Kurt was probably imagining when he said he thought the ocean was dark and spooky. This _is_ dark and spooky, and cold – so much colder than any other spot in the ocean Sebastian has ever traveled to. But it's the silence that bothers him the most. Even in the tranquil waters you can hear the swaying of plants, the darting of occasional fins beating against the water, the tides rushing in and out. Down in the dungeon, the noise from outside is dampened by the thick rock walls. All he hears as he shuffles about are his footsteps against the stone, his breathing, his heartbeat…

The dungeons are reserved for the worst villains in the realm. Most prisoners go mad within a matter of months.

Some of the prison guards do as well.

He tries to let his mind wander to thoughts of Kurt and their night together. Being with him had been more incredible than he dreamed it would be. Kurt is beautiful, soft, and so full of fire. Every sound he makes, every touch of his skin, is like a melody of immaculate music. But it's not for all the superficial, shallow reasons that making love to Kurt had been so amazing.

It is because Kurt loves Sebastian.

He had said it, and Sebastian has the memory of those words to carry him on forever.

But it also made rotting away in this cell that much more agonizing.

He wants to slap himself hard for believing that he could have Kurt – that the two of them could bring their people together and begin an era of peace. That his father might accept him and Kurt - that he might even be proud of him for finding a way to bring their races together.

It is plain to Sebastian now that there will never be peace between them, and there is little hope that he'll see Kurt again.

At least, with the true traitors behind the jellyfish attacks behind bars (like himself) the fairies are safe.

Maybe it would have been better if Sebastian had never traveled through the forbidden waters and went to the cove. Maybe meeting Kurt was a mistake.

But it's a mistake he doesn't regret, not for a minute, not even locked up in this cell for life.

Sebastian hears footsteps and his ears perk up. It can't already be time for a changing of the guard. He peeks out through the coral bars, but they're woven so tight together that little can be seen through the few gaps.

"Stand aside," a voice commands, "I have orders to relocate the prisoner immediately."

Sebastian's heart leaps when he recognizes it.

Trent's voice.

"But, sir," the first guard says, "we have orders from King Malek to keep the prisoner…"

"Yes," Trent cuts in, "and in a day _I_ will be king. For now, I carry his message. He wants the prisoner moved and he has sent me to do it."

Sebastian smirks. Trent might be overdoing it a little, but he's not complaining. Hand it to Trent to come to Sebastian's rescue. He'll never let Sebastian live it down.

"With all due respect, sir," the second guard starts, but Trent doesn't let him get farther than that.

"Would you like to go up to the throne room right now and tell King Malek that you questioned his orders?" Sebastian can hear Trent move closer to the two guards, his voice dropping to a lower, more dangerous register. "From what I've seen, he's in an exceptionally foul mood. I'm pretty sure he will not take well to having his commands second guessed."

In the silence that follows, Sebastian can hear an audible gulp. He shakes his head.

His father rules more by fear than respect, but whatever works.

"Wh-where is the prisoner being moved to?" the first guard stutters as he hands his keys over.

"He is ordered to a cell further below," Trent answers, and the ice in his voice strikes Sebastian straight in the heart.

Further below.

Down in the deep.

Where prisoners are locked away, and then forgotten.

Maybe this isn't a ploy, like Sebastian originally thought. Being locked farther below sounded like something his father would do, he just can't believe that it's an order Trent would consent to carry out.

Malek probably didn't give Trent a choice. Possibly Malek opted for something worse, and Trent negotiated up to this.

Sebastian hears the lock click. The door swings open and Trent steps inside. His face is stern, his eyes hard, and Sebastian feels himself get ready to put up a fight.

A fight against his best friend – he never thought he would see the day.

Trent sees Sebastian staring at him in the dark and he smiles, putting a finger to his lips to keep Sebastian from speaking.

It takes a moment for Sebastian to understand, but when he does, he gets a bit angrier before he can calm down.

Trent almost had him there, and in any other situation, Sebastian would give him the hardest punch in the arm he could.

"Come along," Trent says out loud, grabbing Sebastian by the elbow and dragging him roughly from the cell. Sebastian struggles in the presence of the guards for greater effect. He kicks out, and the guards move out of the way, as Trent drags Sebastian down the hall and out of sight.

Sebastian mellows out when they turn the corner, but Trent keeps a hold of his arm in case they run into anyone else along the way. They walk through the halls of the dungeon, traveling deeper and deeper through the belly of the prison, along curling corridors until they are near enough to the bottom that no light reaches them and they are less likely to be heard.

"You're going to have to go out through the sewer," Trent says in a hushed voice, eyes glowing blue in the dark. "There are guards all around the castle, inside and out. There's no way you'd be able to escape through there."

Sebastian nods.

"Thanks, buddy," he says, preparing to go, but Trent puts his hands on Sebastian's shoulders, looking him deep in his glowing green eyes.

"Sebastian, you have to get to the fire fairies. Your father is gathering an army – every soldier he can. They're going to attack the cove." Trent pauses to take a breath, unintentionally prolonging Sebastian's suffering. "They have orders to leave none that they find alive."

Sebastian's vision blurs. He suddenly sees nothing but a black haze in front of his eyes. Hundreds of fairies drowned, hundreds of sprites burned. They are equally numbered, equally matched as far as Sebastian can tell. If there is a battle, it isn't going to end with anyone the victor.

His father's war will wipe out both races.

"But…but Hunter…" Sebastian stammers, still unable to comprehend his dad's purpose in attacking the fairies.

"Both Hunter and his father have been imprisoned for treason," Trent explains, "but it doesn't seem to matter." Trent shakes his head, sympathizing and equally confused. "It doesn't make sense. After hearing about you and Kurt, your dad got it in his head that the fire fairies _have_ to be destroyed. It's going to take him the day to gather the numbers that he needs, but he's planning to attack during the coronation. There's nothing I can do."

"I have to warn them," Sebastian says, stunned, looking around him at the dark space surrounding him, feeling more trapped than before.

"Go," Trent says, embracing Sebastian and patting him heartily on the back. "Go save your fairy."

Sebastian breaks free from Trent's embrace and races down the spiral staircase that leads into the furthest reaches of the dungeon. Even for creatures that live in the dark, this part of the castle is a never-ending nightmare, and Sebastian hopes to never visit it again. He focuses his every thought on Kurt. Kurt – he has to reach Kurt, and if he has to travel through the dark to get to Kurt's light, he'll do it, a thousand times over.

The sewer lets him out far away from the castle. From this distance, he can see the ruined gates, the scarred coral, the mounting army preparing for battle, and he knows that locked in his throne room, Malek is looking out with satisfaction at the thought of the destruction he is about to cause. Sebastian has heard his father talk maliciously about the fire fairies before.

He knows that the king has been longing to demolish that foe for years.

Sebastian pushes off the sea floor and swims to the surface without anyone the wiser.

Sebastian always thought that being relieved of the leadership and authority of king would feel like a weight lifted off of his shoulders, but he feels heavier as he leaves the castle behind. He worries for his friend, about to become king in his place. He worries for his kingdom, entering a needless battle.

He even worries for his father – whatever happened to make him the bitter, heartless sprite he is now, Sebastian wishes he knew. He can't imagine that his father was always this way.

But becoming king - that part of Sebastian's life is over for him, and there is nothing he can do to get it back. The only choice he has is to move on with his life – and moving on means Kurt, in whatever way he can have him.

Right now, his sole purpose is to warn Kurt that his father's army is headed their way, and they're out for blood.

* * *

><p>"So, when is lover boy going to get here, huh?" Rachel teases, flitting around the fire while Kurt sits on the branch, staring into the water, his feet grazing the surface. He thinks he can feel it now – that cool comfort that Sebastian talked about, that solitude that the water gives him. Kurt thought he would never find it. Sebastian belongs to the water; Kurt does not.<p>

But now, Kurt is a part of Sebastian, and just as Kurt's body no longer burns Sebastian, Kurt can find the allure of the water.

Even if he can't have Sebastian, maybe he can have that.

A whole day has gone by without a word from the kingdom beneath the sea. Kurt knows that Sebastian can't contact him till nightfall, if he gets the chance to contact him at all, but the torture of waiting wears Kurt down emotionally until the slightest thought of Sebastian's touches or his kisses can make Kurt cry. All Kurt knows is there had been a battle beneath the ocean. What if it was still going on when Sebastian got there? What if he had been hurt…or even killed?

Kurt would like to believe he'd know if Sebastian died, that he would be able to feel it like the tearing apart of his own heart, but there is no way for him to truly know until Sebastian comes back – or if he tries to go under water.

Kurt doesn't have enough faith in the water yet to try.

Rachel throws her flowers into the flame, not really paying attention to it, and it reaches out an arm and flicks her on the butt.

"Ow!" she yelps, rubbing her sore bottom, staring at her melancholy brother. "Can you not do that with your feet in the water? It gives me the creeps."

Kurt bites his lip. He didn't want Rachel there with him, but his mother had insisted – a fostering of goodwill, she said. But Kurt is sure she did it to keep him from seeing his love again.

Out of spite, Kurt sticks his feet in the water up to his ankles. Rachel lets out a high, trilling scream.

"Stop!" she squeals. "Pull them out, pull them out, pull them out!"

Kurt closes his eyes, letting the feeling of cold creep up his legs to his knees, reaching out for him beneath his skin, but a hand wraps around his ankle and gives a gentle tug, and Kurt jumps. He flies straight up, pulling a giggling Sebastian free of the water and dropping him unceremoniously on the grass.

"Sebastian!" Kurt screams, tackling him to the ground, holding him tight, not concerned about the droplets of water chilling him to the bone. "I thought…I thought maybe…oh, Sebastian!"

Sebastian feels Kurt's chest heave and hears the fairy cry into his skin, and Sebastian puts his arms around him.

"Shhh," Sebastian says, stroking Kurt's hair and kissing his cheek. "I'm here. It's alright. Everything is alright."

It breaks Sebastian's heart that those sentiments aren't entirely true, but for now they are – while they hold one another, everything is alright.

"So, _this_ is the water sprite that you're so in love with?" Rachel groans, hovering overhead.

Sebastian feels Kurt's body deflate against him and he tries not to laugh. Kurt reaches a hand up to his eyes to wipe the tears from his cheeks without his sister seeing, and turns to face her – her snobbish air tarnished by the blush covering her entire body.

"Sebastian, this is my sister, Princess Rachel," Kurt mutters, motioning to his sister, who performs a clumsy, mid-air curtsey. "Rachel, this is Prince Sebastian, heir to the Undersea Realm."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Rachel says sweetly.

"The pleasure is all mine," Sebastian says with a slight bow.

"Don't encourage her," Kurt grumbles, "or you'll make her feel important, and we'll never be rid of her, and I was hoping to get a little time with my prince alone."

"You can have all the time you want with me," Sebastian says, trying to sound lighthearted, "because I'm not anymore."

Kurt's brow furrows.

"Not what?" Kurt asks.

"Not a prince," Sebastian confesses quickly.

"Not a…what happened?" Kurt sputters. "I don't understand."

Sebastian sighs. He wishes he had the whole night to explain, wrapped naked in Kurt's embrace where he can kiss away the fairy's confusion, along with all of his pent up anxiety and fear.

"We need to talk," Sebastian says, "because something terrible is going to happen, and every fire fairy is in danger…"

Kurt turns when he feels a flame behind him grow brighter.

"Rachel! Go back to the flame!" he snaps. "I need to talk to Sebastian alone."

"No," Rachel says, more petulantly than defiantly. "If the fire fairies are in danger, I want to know why."

"It's alright," Sebastian says, turning Kurt back to face him. "She might as well find out now." Sebastian holds Kurt's arms. He wants to hold him in his embrace while he tells him, but he needs Kurt to understand more than he's telling him with words. He needs Kurt to see the truth in his eyes. "We were caught," Sebastian says. He waits a moment, watching Kurt's eyes widen.

"Who…did your friend…"

"No," Sebastian says, running his hands up and down Kurt's arms to soothe his rage, "no, not Trent. Someone else. Someone who used to be my friend, who's been trying to get the crown for ages now. But he doesn't matter. My father found out about us, and he took away my claim to the throne."

"So, who's going to be king now?" Kurt asks, even though deep down he knows that question isn't necessarily important. It's just giving him time to come to terms with everything.

"Trent is," Sebastian says, smiling automatically at the thought of his best friend becoming king. Kurt looks up into Sebastian's face strangely and Sebastian shakes the smile from his face. "But my father is furious. He wants revenge."

"Against you?" Kurt asks softly.

"Yeah, against me," Sebastian answers dryly, "but also you and your mother, and every other fire fairy he can find." Kurt trembles. "He's gathering an army. During Trent's coronation tomorrow, they're going to attack. He wants to kill you all."

Kurt gasps, stepping back from Sebastian's hold on his arms.

"But…but why would he want us dead?" Kurt asks. "What have we done to him?"

"I don't know," Sebastian says, letting his hands fall to his sides. "I don't understand it. But I think I know someone who might, and maybe if we can find out the answer, we might be able to find a way to stop this war before it starts. But we have to go now. We're running out of time."

"But…the flame," Kurt says, turning to the lick of fire turning a gloomy blue on its branch where it burns. "I have to tend it. If it goes out…"

"I'll do it," Rachel interjects. Kurt and Sebastian look up at her, surprised as they had both forgotten her.

"What?" Kurt asks. "But you can't. You're not strong enough…"

"I'm as strong as I'm ever going to be," Rachel says, lighting to the ground to talk to her brother face to face. "And I'm taking over tomorrow anyway…"

"With Mother's help and guidance," Kurt argues. "I can't let you…"

"Look, Kurt," Rachel says, raising her voice, "you're running out of time. If I can't do it, then I'll call for help, but I need to give you a head start. Once she finds out about the army, you know what she's going to do."

"Yes…" Kurt says, bowing his head, with Sebastian looking on befuddled. If the queen found out about the coming army, _she_ would attack first. She would extend the power of the Eternal Flame beneath the water. She would add all her magic to it, till it burned bright.

She would eliminate every creature she could reach – malignant and benign.

"Alright," Kurt says, taking a deep breath. "Alright. But you have to promise that if it gets too hard for you, that you'll call for help."

"I will," Rachel says with a solemn smile.

Kurt looks around, then heads for a log on the far side of the meadow. He returns quickly with an armful of deep burgundy leaves, and drops them on the ground at her feet.

"If you need help, put these in the flame. They'll turn the fire a brilliant gold that can be seen from anywhere in the dark. Burn these, and I'll return."

"I will." Rachel steps forward and hugs Kurt tight. "Now, go. Find out a way to stop this war."

"I will," Kurt promises, kissing his sister's silky hair. "I promise."

Rachel steps back and gathers up the leaves, waving shyly at Sebastian who winks back before diving back into the water. Kurt takes to the air, looking down at the cove, the flame, his little sister bravely tending the Eternal Flame, and his mother's palace, shining like a flame itself, a white pyre of alabaster stone.

"I'll be back," he whispers. Turning toward the ocean, he spots Sebastian's body cutting sleekly through the water. Kurt beats his wings, and staying above the spitting surf and the rolling waves, he follows Sebastian out to sea.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** _If you were reading this on AO3 you would notice the tags say 'near death'. Please keep that in mind as you read this chapter. I don't like to give away secrets, but I don't want anyone upset, either. I love you all 3_

The frigid breeze off the water stings Kurt's wings, but he pushes on, even when he begins to fear that they will become brittle and snap off his body. The farther away from the Eternal Flame he flies, the colder he feels, as if he's losing all the heat in his body. He has heat of his own, of course, but it's not the same. All fire fairies come from the flame. It's their source of life. His mother always warned him to stay in close proximity to it. He wonders how far away from it he can go and still feels its warmth.

He tries not to think about it. Instead, he focuses on Sebastian swimming below him, his body cutting through the water as he zips beneath the surface. Kurt has not seen him like this before – his long arms and strong legs propelling him along, the line of his back kept straight so he can slice through the swells. Sebastian is beautiful on land, but he's powerful in the sea.

A sea that is no longer safe for him.

Kurt wraps his arms around his torso and shivers, but the thought of Sebastian's body keeps him warm.

Sebastian stops swimming so suddenly that Kurt flies past him about a mile before he can stop. Sebastian breaks through the surface and calls up to his fairy.

"I'm looking for a big sea turtle. Do you happen to see her anywhere?"

Kurt looks around him at the water as far as he can see. There are only a few animals on the surface, though it would probably help Kurt if he knew what a sea turtle looked like.

"How will I know a sea turtle if I see one?" Kurt calls back.

"She's large and round, with a broad, flat shell," Sebastian replies.

Kurt turns a full circle in the sky, surveying the animals he can see. There are four that fit that description, but he's not too sure about any of them, and he doesn't have time to be wrong.

"Here," Kurt says, flying down to Sebastian. He grabs Sebastian's arm and tugs. Sebastian lifts his arms up so the fairy can loops his arms around the sprite's chest and lift him into the air. Kurt flies with Sebastian up into the sky and shows him the lay of the water.

"There," Sebastian says, pointing to the east. "Right on the surface, bobbing through the kelp. There she is."

Kurt squints his eyes and looks at the creature sitting amidst a massive bed of dark brown plant-looking things.

"Got it," he says, setting Sebastian back in the water.

Sebastian takes Kurt's arm before he can fly away, running his hand along the fairy's pale skin.

"You're cold," Sebastian says, pressing his lips to the back of Kurt's hand.

His kiss is a small dot of warmth on a frigid landscape, but it's enough to make Kurt want to go on.

"Yes, I am," Kurt admits, "and I'm not getting any warmer staying here, so let's go get to that turtle."

Kurt shoots into the sky and takes off in the direction of the massive animal before Sebastian tries to convince him to head back to land.

Kurt knows at this point it wouldn't take much convincing.

They reach the kelp and find the turtle sitting within the thick ropes, nibbling on the leaves and soaking up the sun, eyes shut in peaceful repose.

"Oh, great and powerful maiden of the sea…" Sebastian starts as Kurt hovers carefully nearby.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Sue exclaims, turning her prodigious girth in the direction of Sebastian's voice. "Nearly a hundred years I've gone without having to talk to any of your obnoxious kin, and now – twice in the space of a few days. What the heck do you want now, oh Fallen Sea Prince?" Sebastian jerks back at her taunt, and the sea turtle smiles. "Yeah, yeah, I know all about that. You've lost your crown to your best friend. _Now_ what are you going to do?"

"Ho-how did you know about that?" Sebastian asks, embarrassed that word of his shame has gotten around so quickly.

"I have my sources," Sue says with a wink. "None of which I'm at liberty to confirm or deny…" Sebastian had always suspected that a fish or two in their kingdom were spies for Sue. One in particular, a bubbly clown fish called Becky, seemed to have a similar calculating look as Sue does in her eyes. "So, tell me, who did I wrong in a past life to deserve the punishment of your company?"

"I have another question to ask you," Sebastian says.

"Obviously," Sue remarks with a dramatic roll of her black eyes. She catches sight of the fire fairy hovering above her head, and smirks. "Ahhh," she says. "So, this is about him, huh? Your little porcelain prince?"

"P-p-pleased to make your acquaintance," Kurt stutters, rubbing his arms to ward off the cold.

"Oh, you presume too much, little fairy," Sue says, turning her attention back to Sebastian. "So, what do you and twinkle toes want? I was hoping to nap for about fifty years, and you guys are kind of harshing my mellow."

"My father has declared war on the fire fairies," Sebastian announces.

Sue scoffs and shakes her head.

"Well, it took him long enough, I suppose," she says, but her voice is more sad than sardonic, and Sebastian knows he's come to the right sea creature.

"The thing I don't understand is why," Sebastian says. "He found out about us…" Sebastian's eyes find Kurt above his head, shivering violently, and he frowns at the bluish tinge to the fire fairy's skin, "and he got angry, but why the full-scale invasion? Why this need to be rid of them?"

"Yes," Kurt says, lowering himself so his voice can be heard, "what have we done that he feels the need to destroy us?"

Sue's large eyes look up at the fairy, and then down at the sprite.

"You don't know?" she asks Sebastian, who shakes his head. "And you don't know either?" she asks Kurt, who shrugs with his arms still wrapped around his body. Sue blows out a breath. "You two are so vain!" the turtle scolds them. "So vain and so selfish! And so ignorant! You are both princes of your people…about to be kings!" She stares at Sebastian significantly. "At least, you _used_ to be. And you know nothing about your history."

"I've tried asking my mother!" Kurt cries in his defense. "Over and over! But she will not tell me!"

Sue rolls her eyes up to Kurt, looking thoroughly unimpressed by his claim.

"And you, young water sprite," she says. "Have you asked your father, the Great King of the Sea, why this feud between your kingdoms has lasted so long?"

"No," Sebastian admits. "I have not."

"And why not?" the turtle asks.

"Have you met my father?" Sebastian counters with bitterness in his voice.

The turtle looks at him with remotely sympathetic eyes.

"Fair enough," the turtle answers.

"But that is why we have sought you out, wise turtle," Kurt says. "To find out the answer and stop this war."

"I'm not sure the answer I have is going to help you," Sue says. "In fact, it might make things worse."

"How can things possibly get worse than all-out war?" Sebastian asks, staring up at Kurt with more and more worry.

Sue sighs, paddling back and forth with her front flippers, stalling as she thinks over her answer.

"Your father, Malek," she says, "and your mother, Elizabeth, were once much closer than you could ever imagine."

"How d-do you m-mean?" Kurt stutters, flitting over to a patch of sunlight, searching for warmth.

"The King of the Sea, and the Queen of the Fire Fairies are, alas, related."

Kurt's head snaps down as Sebastian's head snaps up, and their eyes lock.

"So, his father and my mother are…brother and sister?" Kurt asks.

"It's a bit more complicated than that, little fairy," the turtle replies. "A long time ago, at the beginning of all things, your mother and Sebastian's father were one. As a single entity, your parents were all that is good in the world. They were love and hope and creation. They had power, yes, but they were fair-minded and just…" The turtle pauses to sigh. "And beautiful. So, so beautiful."

"What…what happened to them?" Sebastian asks, wishing he could hold Kurt close, expecting the worst from the sea turtle's tale.

"The same thing that happens to all perfect things in the history of forever. I should know…" she says, tossing her head back with conceit. "The gods grew jealous of them, as gods tend to do. Never happy unless they're miserable, gods are. They lied to your parents – told them one was planning to break away from the other, overthrow them. At first, Malek and Elizabeth didn't believe it, so in love with each other they were. But slowly the voices of jealousy picked them apart, and they believed the lies so completely that they tore themselves in two. Malek's hate became all-consuming - so large that it took the entire ocean to contain it. And Elizabeth's hate burned within her until it spilled over and threatened to set everything on fire. They created this world, and it depends on their balance. If that balance is hate or love, it means nothing, just so long as one does not become more powerful than the other."

"But…that's going to change when my father attacks!" Sebastian exclaims. "Neither the sprites or the fairies will win!"

"Meh," Sue says, dismissing Sebastian's concern with a shrug.

"How do we fix this?" Kurt asks.

"You can't," Sue says. Kurt gasps and Sebastian glares, but the sea turtle only rolls her eyes. "I'm sorry, but you can't. You can't _fix_ your parents. And as soon as those two unleash their fury, that will be the end of it."

"The end of the water sprites and the fire fairies," Sebastian moans. "We know."

"No, I mean the end of it all," Sue says. "The whole gall-darn world."

"What?" Kurt asks in shock. _The end of the world? Of everything?_ He can't even picture it.

"Yup. You're going to have to start over, somewhere else, on a place where fire and water can live together in peace, the way your parents did long ago."

"You're lying," Sebastian spits. "You're playing games with us. If this battle means the end of the world, then why the hell are you so calm?"

"Because, to be honest, I really don't care," Sue admits. "A sea turtle's life is usually 100 years. I'm well beyond that, my tiny friend. If this is the end, that's okay. I've lived long enough."

"Where is this place?" Kurt asks, glowing red with shame at considering leaving his people – his mother and sisters – to their perilous fates. "This place where Sebastian and I can be together? Where we can start over?"

Sue looks up at Kurt with a new-found respect in her own cynical eyes.

"There is a field, not too far from here, covered in white flowers that are made of both fire and water. They are always there, but they only bloom during the eclipse. They will release their pods into the night sky, and those pods will carry you away to a place – a star – where the two of you can begin again."

"You're lying!" Sebastian growls angrily. "There is no such place. You're toying with us for your own amusement. I was stupid for thinking you'd actually give us a real answer."

"You probably were," Sue says, unfazed. "But believe what you want. I couldn't really care less. I'm not the one about to lose the love of my life." Sue looks up at Kurt with oddly imploring eyes. "But take heed, little ones. Your time on this planet is growing short, so whatever you're going to do, do it fast."

Sue moves her flat fins, swirling the water in a small whirlpool around her. She ducks her head beneath the surface and disappears below the kelp, into the deep.

Kurt looks down at Sebastian, the sprite's green eyes seething at the spot where the turtle had been.

"Sebastian?" Kurt calls down softly.

Sebastian doesn't look up at Kurt, just shakes his head.

"No," Sebastian says. "I don't believe that's the answer – running away. There has to be something else we can do."

"But, what?" Kurt asks, berating himself silently for even considering it – escaping to a place where they could be together, like in his dream.

"I don't know yet," Sebastian says, looking up at Kurt, his gaze softening when he sees a frightened Kurt trembling in the air above him. "My father stopped listening. Why don't we try your mother?"

"No!" Kurt cries. "No, Sebastian! She'll kill you if she finds out about us."

"I'm sorry, Kurt," Sebastian says, reaching out a hand even though he knows he can't risk touching Kurt while the fire fairy is so cold, "but it's a chance we've got to take."

* * *

><p>Rachel's arms grow heavy from exhaustion as she dances, her movements slowing, the fire flickering weakly, but she has to keep going. She has to keep moving, keep singing. She pictures her brother and her mother in her head, twirling around on the wind, their effortless grace and beauty, the way they can turn the fire colors and make the flame bend. The mulberry leaves sit in the grass where she left them shortly after he brother and his water sprite left. All she would have to do is retrieve a couple and toss them in the flame, and her brother would come home. She knows it, but she refuses. She is not so much of a selfish, silly fairy as others think her. She knows exactly what is going on. She understands why her brother left.<p>

Their people are in danger, and Kurt went off to do the right thing.

He is acting like a king.

It is time she started being a better princess, and a better sister.

Rachel doesn't blame him about the water sprite, either. The one thing she has always dreamed of is falling in love. Not a simple love. Those aren't any fun. But a complicated, twisted, painful, all-consuming love. Something you burn to have. Something you would happily suffer for.

She owed Kurt more than she had ever given him. He had always been patient with her, unerringly kind, even when she didn't give him any reason to be. If their mother finds out about Kurt leaving with his water sprite, she might hurt them.

She might even kill them.

Rachel wants to stop, wants to rest for a few moments, but the fire is dying, and if it goes out entirely, their mother will see.

Rachel's bleary mind comes up with a desperate solution. If Rachel could fuel the fire with her body, with her own internal flame, she could keep it lit long enough for Kurt to return.

She just has to be strong and not succumb to the flame.

All fire fairies come from the flame, and it's to the flame they all return.

* * *

><p>Elizabeth gazes out the window of her palace, down to the water's edge where her son and daughter diligently tend the Eternal Flame. There isn't much time left for Kurt, and soon, there won't be time left for Elizabeth at all. She's not sure how she will tell her children this. Maybe she shouldn't. Maybe she should quietly return to the fire when the time comes and let life continue on without her.<p>

But now is not the time to think about that.

She sighs into the night and lets the sparkle from her own inner fire add to the landscape of stars. The fire's pinkish hue licks at the dark sky, setting the surface of the water aglow. It is spectacular – so spectacular. She envies her son and daughter – their beauty and their youth. She envies Kurt most of all – at the beginning of his journey when hers is so close to an end. The only thing that he doesn't have, that he desperately wants, is freedom. If he was any of her other children, she would let him go, let him be free to explore the world and follow his whims, and find love. An immense and incredible love like the one she had before…a long time ago.

As much as she hates to keep her eldest son a prisoner to their traditions and customs, it's unavoidable. Elizabeth is tired, and regardless of the flame's magic, she is growing older. An eternity in existence is too much, too long. She feels her own fire dimming as sadness clouds her heart. Soon, there will be little left of her but a memory.

A memory and her children.

Elizabeth gazes at the fire Kurt tends so well.

"The flame is beautiful tonight," Elizabeth says to her attendants, looking out at the flame dancing where it hovers out of reach of the water, "but it seems so lonely…so sad."

Elizabeth peers into the flame, trying to find her melancholy child whose sorrow influences the flame. The hue of the fire, which she at first thought to be pink, is actually red.

It's red, and it's crying.

Elizabeth leaps from her window and flies to the cove. There she finds the fire burning on the branch, all alone.

"Kurt?" she calls into the inky darkness. "Rachel? Darlings?"

She spins in place, but there isn't a sign of her children anywhere. She puts a hand out to try and speak to the flame, but the flame begins to sputter, and suddenly, it burns out.

In its place lies a fairy. Elizabeth gasps, throwing a hand to her lips.

"No!" she sobs, each tear hitting the water and forming ripples, the sound echoing around the dark cove like the herald of an oncoming storm.

Her cries are answered by a legion of fairies who fly down from the palace and alight in the trees, surrounding their grieving queen.

"What is it? What's wrong? Your majesty? What's happened?" a chorus of tiny voices rises up around her. Soon the cries start as more fairies crowd around and see the body of Rachel lying on the branch. "Oh no! It's the princess Rachel! She's dead! Rachel is dead and the prince is gone! Someone has killed the princess and kidnapped her brother!"

"Find him!" Elizabeth cries up into the pinpoints of light that glow in the darkness, as if summoning the help of the stars in the sky. "Find Kurt! Wherever he is! Whatever it takes! Bring him to me!"

"But, where is he, My Queen?" one of the many guards ask.

"Where will we begin to look?" pipes in another.

Elizabeth looks around – to the ground, to the sky, at the water's surface still upset by her tears.

The water - dark and swirling in the cove now that the fire has gone out.

No one but the people of the water would benefit from the loss of the Eternal Flame – or the death of their princess…and possibly their prince.

"The Water Sprites must have done this," Elizabeth says, turning to the body lying before her. "They must have. We have no other enemies among the creatures of the earth. They've murdered my precious daughter and taken my son! And now they must pay!"


	11. Chapter 11

Kurt rushes toward the cove at a break-neck speed in search of the flame to warm him, but he doesn't feel its fire reaching out for him. He calls to it with his mind, tries to picture it dancing happily on its branch, but for all his beckoning he hears nothing. If Kurt didn't know better, he would think the Eternal Flame had gone out. He looks up toward the horizon when he feels the coming dawn singing as it washes over the underside of the world.

He has to get back. He has to take over the flame from his sister and get Sebastian deep enough below the water to escape the daylight. Then he has to try and convince his mother that an army of water sprites is planning to attack – and try to persuade her _not_ to destroy every living thing in the ocean to evade the battle.

If he can accomplish all of that in the limited hours he has left before the eclipse, then he really does deserve to be king.

The water sprite stops to get his bearings, glancing up at Kurt to see if the fairy is any better off than before. Kurt's skin is still snowy white – much paler than his normal pink pastel hue – and his lips look frighteningly blue. Kurt smiles down when he catches Sebastian's gaze, trying to show the sprite that he need not fear for Kurt's safety.

Kurt wouldn't fear, either, if he could just feel the Eternal Flame's warmth again. They aren't all that far from the cove now. Why is it not calling out to him?

"When we get back to shore, we need to go check on Rachel first," Kurt calls down to Sebastian, clenching his teeth to keep them from chattering. "I need to make sure she's okay."

"Don't worry," Sebastian yells back, giving Kurt a reassuring wink. "I'm sure she's fine. After all, she never lit the mulberry leaves to signal you."

"I know," Kurt agrees. "Still, I'll feel better knowing she's okay."

"Of course, my love," Sebastian says, diving beneath the swells and taking off toward land.

Kurt flies after him, not willing to let the water sprite get the upper hand. Kurt laughs and loop-de-loops in the air, daring a bob down toward the water and reaching in to tug at Sebastian's hair. Sebastian flips onto his back and laughs, enjoying Kurt's company.

He misses Trent. He misses his kingdom. To a degree, he misses his father.

But everything is careening out of control too fast, and Sebastian has no foreseeable future to savor with Kurt, so he makes sure to keep these moments close to his heart and remember them, come what may.

Sebastian sees Kurt hold his arms tight to his body, beating his fragile silvery wings against the ocean breeze, narrowed eyes fixed on the shoreline. He wants to stop again and tell Kurt everything is alright, but he knows Kurt won't be settled until they reach the flame. They're approaching the cove at quite a clip, and soon Kurt will have his reassurance – his sister back in his arms and the fire to warm his skin.

They reach the cove, and Kurt hurries to the branch, basking in the glow of the orange flame.

"Ahhh, thank goodness," Sebastian hears him mutter, rubbing his hands up and down his drenched skin, shaking off his wet wings and sighing as the water evaporates with the heat.

Sebastian jumps over the log and into the pool, and paddles cautiously over to Kurt. Something doesn't feel right in the cove, but Sebastian can't seem to put his finger on it.

"Kurt?" he calls when the fairy disappears behind the flame. "Where's Rachel?"

"I don't know," Kurt's voice comes back. "She should be here. But that's not the only weird thing."

"What?" Sebastian asks, climbing up onto the branch.

"The fire," Kurt says, walking into view, "it doesn't…feel the same."

"What do you mean?" Sebastian asks. "What doesn't feel the same?"

"It doesn't want to listen to me," Kurt says, reaching out a hand to call to the flame. It sputters stubbornly before complying, but not as enthusiastically as it has numerous times before. "I don't understand it."

"Is there a chance that this is a new flame?" Sebastian asks. He sits back, trailing his feet in the pool with his eyes to the sky when something beyond the cover of clouds catches his attention.

"I…I guess so," Kurt says, trying one more time to get the flame to behave. "But, I don't see how. No one's here. If my mother knew I was gone, she'd be here waiting for me."

"Kurt…" Sebastian says, green eyes peering off into the distance behind Kurt's head, "I think your mother knows..."

The clouds part and the cove fills with a sudden white light from above. Sebastian puts his arms up over his face to hide from its oppressive light. Fire fairies drop down from the sky and the trees all around. A swarm of fairies circle Sebastian, but Kurt reaches him before they do, and blocks him from the reach of their flaming spears.

"Don't touch him," Kurt commands. A few fairies back down. A few more conflicted fairies stand their ground with their weapons raised.

"My Queen!" he hears a cry go out. "He's here! We've found him!"

"Kurt!" he hears his mother's voice as she approaches the cove. "I'm so glad to see that you're safe! I thought for sure you had been kidnapped and dragged into the water."

Elizabeth shrinks her bodily form and lights down on the grass, pushing through the ring of guards surrounding the couple, thrilled to see her son back alive.

"After what happened to Rachel, I…"

She looks at the two standing before her. It takes her a moment to realize that the boy standing behind her son is wingless. She glares at him with volatile eyes.

"You!" she says, the smile dropping from her face. "You're the water sprite, aren't you? You attacked my daughter! You kidnapped my son!"

"No!" Kurt cries.

Elizabeth's eyes widen as she looks at her son.

"I didn't attack anyone," Sebastian says evenly. "Please, let me explain…"

Elizabeth isn't listening, her ears ringing as she looks them over, her eyes falling on their joined hands, on Kurt's body shielding the water sprite standing behind him.

"You…you were with him?" Elizabeth asks, her voice becoming dangerously quiet. "_This_ is the boy you love?"

"Mother," Kurt says, "I can explain."

"You were with him," Elizabeth repeats, pointing an accusing finger in Kurt's face. "You left your post, and your sister, to go off with him?"

"You don't understand," Kurt says.

"Your majesty," Sebastian says, stepping to Kurt's side and bowing low. "I am Sebastian, and yes, I come from the kingdom beneath the sea, but I am here to deliver you a warning."

"Warn _me_?" Elizabeth asks, making herself larger, highly offended at being addressed by a lowly water creature.

"My father, King Malek, is planning to attack," Sebastian continues, hoping to make Elizabeth hear him before she does anything rash. "You must prepare. You must do what you can to protect your subjects."

Elizabeth's eyes snap from Sebastian's face to Kurt's face – Sebastian standing boldly in the face of his adversary, Kurt looking like he wants to dig a hole into the earth and hide. Elizabeth's overwhelming clash of emotions swells within her, and she's unsure what to with any of them. Does she admire Sebastian for his bravery? Does she detest her son for his show of cowardice? Does she kill them both where they stand for being traitors? She can't calm the tide within her long enough to decide.

"Lock them up!" Elizabeth yells, raising her arms and sending a storm of guards descending upon Sebastian and Kurt. "My son to his room, and this one…" Her mouth curls fiendishly as the idea comes to her, "to the bower in the meadow…"

"No!" Kurt screams, scrabbling through the guards to reach Sebastian, clawing at faces of fairies who once protected him, fighting against those who avowed their lives to him. "No, you can't! Mother! It's only a few hours till sunrise! If you leave him there, he'll die!"

Kurt catches Sebastian eyes, the brave sprite holding himself straight and tall with his arms barred behind his back, not struggling to be free or begging for mercy.

"Then that should make negotiations go that much smoother," Elizabeth says.

"Negotiations? Negotiations with whom?" Kurt asks. He watches with growing dread as the guards drag Sebastian to his prison in the meadow, in a spot where the trees form a cone directly to the sky, funneling the light into the cove when the sun reaches its apogee. "Negotiations with King Malek?"

"No," Elizabeth says, turning away from her son to return to the flame. "Negotiations with _you_."

* * *

><p>The guards lead Kurt to the palace and for the first time in his life, his people jeer at him. They yell at him. They curse at him. The fairies are a collective, a hive, a single entity, following the direction of their queen, and Elizabeth has called out to her subjects with her mind and sent explicit instructions for those gathered who see her son to sneer at him.<p>

"Traitor!" they call him. "Disgrace!"

"You are the reason our beloved princess is gone!" a voice cries out. "You are the reason Princess Rachel is dead!"

Kurt hears their words and his heart shatters.

"Rachel is…dead?" he whispers. He shakes his head. "No!" He turns to the guards around him. "Please!" he pleads. "Please, tell me it isn't true! She can't be dead! She can't be!"

But the guards don't talk to him. They don't offer him any comfort. They continue on, treating him coldly, disaffected, ignoring his cries. They bring him to his room and lock him in, a single guard staying behind to make sure he doesn't escape.

Kurt sinks to the floor behind the locked door and begins to weep.

Rachel is dead.

His favorite sister gone.

And in a few hours, the love of his life will be, too.

* * *

><p>Kurt keeps vigil by the window when he feels the sunlight creeping closer. This shouldn't be happening. This isn't the way Sebastian is supposed to die, not when he tried so hard to do the noble thing. He deserves better than to burn to death, trapped in a cage without anyone there to comfort him.<p>

Kurt has been trying to figure a way out of his own prison since he could calm himself enough to think, but there is no way. Little by little, more guards join the first. They station themselves by his door and outside his window till they are his only view every time he tries to look out.

The only out he can see is to rush the guards and hope for the best.

Just as he's about to do something desperate, his door unlocks and slides open.

"The queen wants to see you," the first guard says, stepping back and giving Kurt room to exit.

* * *

><p>Kurt can see the ocean starting to turn golden with the promise of sunlight on the horizon, and he swallows hard.<p>

_Oh, please,_ he pleads in his head. _Oh, please, gods who look after the creatures of the sea, keep him safe. Please, extend your reach to your son trapped on land. Don't let him die._

Slowly, they approach the cove. The first thing Kurt sees is his mother looming above, empowered by her rage, and Kurt begins to lose all hope.

Filled from head to toe with this much hate, she will be impossible to convince.

Kurt's heart begins to wither. He has already lost a sister. He can't stand to watch the love of his life die.

They enter the cove, and Kurt's eyes find Sebastian – cramped inside a prison made entirely of twisted roots springing from the earth. Guards armed with flaming spears surround him. They leer at the refugee sprite, taunt him, and on behalf of his own people, Kurt is deeply ashamed. Kurt lands on the grass, soft and damp beneath his feet. _Water_. Sebastian is lying on a bed of water, however sparse, and Kurt is grateful for that one small favor.

Kurt tries to make his way to Sebastian, but the guards rush to block his path, their faces impassive. Kurt looks into their indifferent eyes and knows that they won't be moved by any appeal from him. He has been stripped of his title and his dignity - his place of purpose among his people.

Kurt turns to his mother, ready to make a last-ditch attempt to stop this madness while knowing in his heart that arguing with his queen is futile.

"Let him go, Mother," Kurt says, speaking for once in a tone commanding and regal, one his mother had always hoped for but had yet to hear.

Elizabeth looks at her son, momentarily impressed.

"No," the queen says simply.

"There is a war coming!" Kurt implores. "He was only trying to help, to warn us, to save our people!"

Elizabeth rolls her mighty head on her shoulders and trains her eyes toward the sunrise.

The delight in her eyes at the rising sun sends a chill through Kurt's body.

Kurt knew his mother was a force to be reckoned with, but he never knew that she was a heartless killer.

"Why are you determined to see him dead, Mother?" Kurt asks, gritting his teeth, trying to keep panic at bay to think clearly. "Because he is our enemy, or because by falling in love with him, I hurt your pride?"

That gets her attention, and she turns fiercely on her son.

"What were you going to do, Kurt? Huh?" Elizabeth asks in a mocking tone. "Were you going to run away together? Where did you think you two could go that I wouldn't find you? Where on earth could you live out of the water and away from the sun?"

"There is a star," Kurt says, preparing to explain about the field of flowers that bloom only during the eclipse that would take them into the heavens, but somehow mentioning the star is all he needs to say. The way his mother's face blanches, Kurt knows it's true. The star exists, and his mother knows it.

"How?" Elizabeth asks, pausing to word her question carefully. "How do you think you know about such a star?"

"A sea turtle told us," Kurt admits, keeping the turtle's name a secret in case his mother goes searching for vengeance, "about a star where fire and water can exist together in peace. A star where Sebastian and I can start a new life, since you and his father seem dead set on destroying all life here."

His mother shrinks a bit, her skin returning to a cooler hue. The look in her eyes is unreadable, which frightens Kurt. He can hear the morning start its song. He's running out of time.

"The turtle is mistaken, you foolish child!" Elizabeth roars, her skin turning a deeper red than before. "There is no star, no place where you two can exist together in peace, so forget about all of that! You are not going anywhere with the water sprite! You are staying here and you will be king! You will defeat our enemy, and the fire fairies will rule over this world as they were meant to from the beginning!"

"I love him!" Kurt yells, reaching out a hand, longing for just a touch of Sebastian's hand.

"But he's one of them!" Elizabeth screams. "He's the enemy, and by siding with him, that makes you a traitor!"

"I love him!" Kurt repeats.

"You can't love him!" Elizabeth counters. "I forbid it!"

"_You_ used to love one of them!" Kurt yells. "Or don't you remember?" Elizabeth furrows her brow, but then her face goes from red to pink as she starts to understand – the secret she had kept from her children for so many years, now known. "Malek?" Kurt says the name with sourness on his tongue. "Your brother? Your other half? " He shakes his head in despair at his mother. "Why did you not tell me?"

"Kurt," Elizabeth says, making herself bigger, "that is none of your affair."

"None of my affair?" Kurt asks, his body shaking with anger and confusion. "Soon, the armies of the water sprites will be on our shores, and it is none of my affair? Your brother has declared war on my people with his blind hatred – a hatred _you_ share - and it's none of my affair? You are turning the mantle of king over to me on the eve of war, and it's none of my affair?"

"Kurt," she says, growing even larger, "this is the last time I warn you." Other fairies around them fly for cover, but her overwhelming size and booming voice no longer intimidate Kurt, who stares up at her with the desolate mask of one betrayed.

"No, Mother," Kurt says, pushing the guards aside as they back away from their terrifying queen. Kurt puts a hand on the roots of the bower that keeps Sebastian trammeled inside. "This is the last time I listen to your lies. I refuse to become king. Keep your rule and keep your hate. This ends with me…" Kurt looks at Sebastian, kneeling in his cage, "and him."

Sebastian reaches out a hand through the roots and laces their fingers together, smiling in a weak attempt at giving Kurt courage, but his green eyes speak of his feelings of hopelessness and regret. Elizabeth watches them, her fury igniting with each touch of her son's fingers of the water sprite's skin.

"You will go, son. You will meet the eclipse as you were meant to. You will become king and you will win this war," Elizabeth says, raising her hand and filling it with a ball of flame, "or I will not wait for the sun. I will burn your beloved myself."

"No!" Kurt cries, blocking the cage with his own body, but as small as the prison his, Kurt's body is so much smaller, and he is not sure he can control his mother's flame. "You can't!"

"Someone has yet to pay for what happened to your sister," Elizabeth growls, the flame that covers her hand growing red with her anger. "Shall it be him?"

Kurt looks from his mother's eyes, full of sinister rage such as he has never seen burning in them before, to the water sprite trembling in his cage – hands curled over the bars, pulling at them with all his strength, helpless and frightened. Kurt feels the sun cresting the horizon, feels his own rage turn into sorrow.

"No," Kurt says, returning his gaze to his mother's eyes, "it shall be me. Let him go, and I will do what you demand. I will not fight you."

"No!" Sebastian yells out from behind the twined bars. "No, Kurt! Don't!"

"Release him, then I will take my place as king," Kurt says over Sebastian's protests. "I will fight your war…and I will never see Sebastian again."

Elizabeth extinguishes the flame with a grim smile of triumph on her face.

"Done," she says. She snaps her fingers and the retreating guards re-appear.

"No, Kurt!" Sebastian cries. "No! Don't!"

Kurt takes a deep breath and looks back at Sebastian. The sprite shakes his head, reaching out an arm to touch his fairy prince.

"No," Sebastian pleads. "Don't." Sebastian's forlorn expression is an image that Kurt doesn't want to be left with - his love, his courageous prince, finally beginning to crumble. "Don't do this," Sebastian whispers. "Don't leave me."

"I'm sorry," Kurt says, biting his lip to keep from breaking down. "I love you too much," he sniffles. " I have no other choice."


	12. Chapter 12

Kurt watches the guards construct another cage from supple twigs that they gather around the meadow. When the structure is complete, they transfer the struggling sprite from one cage to the other. Attached to a vine, they lower the cage into the water of the hidden pool, in the shadow of the brier bushes where Sebastian will be safe from the sunlight, but where he will have an unobstructed view of the meadow.

As they lower the sprite into the water, Sebastian stares at Kurt with eyes begging for the fairy prince to change his mind, but Kurt shakes his head, looking away from his love, his heart withering with shame.

"I'm so glad I raised such an intelligent son," Elizabeth says, tossing a handful of peonies into the flame and filling the cove with a soft, pink glow. "A son who can see reason. A son who knows his rightful place."

Kurt kneels in the grass and lets servants from the palace dress him in royal garb, put crowns of flowers in his head, and cover his face in powders and paints until he is nearly unrecognizable.

"There was a time when I would have done anything for you, Mother," Kurt says, his voice devoid of all emotion. "But now…"

"Now, what, my son?" Elizabeth asks, barely regarding Kurt as she gathers more flowers for the flame.

"Now…I do none of this for you," Kurt says, his eyes drifting toward the pool and the green eyes staring back at him. "I'll become king, but it's not for you or my people. It's for him." Kurt swallows back a sob, erases the grimace from his face, and tries his best to smile. "It's all for him."

"You are a fool," Elizabeth says of her son, looking up at the darkening sky, "but soon it will not matter. You will be king. You will inherit all of my powers. And when the eclipse is over and everything is done, you will see things _my_ way."

* * *

><p>Within his cage beneath the water, Sebastian tries to make his mind work logically, but he can feel the eclipse draw near, like an hourglass somewhere within his soul, the grains of sand causing ripples within him as they fall one by one. The eclipse will change Kurt, turn him into a king, but it was meant to change Sebastian, too, and now the moon inching close to cover the sun is calling to him.<p>

Sebastian feels his body growing stronger, though he is not strong enough yet to break free of his cage.

But if he can break free, what will be his next move?

If he comes up on land to appeal to the fairies during the eclipse, they will attack – with or without Kurt's command - and Sebastian doesn't know if this new strength will be enough to defend himself from their fire.

Most likely not, since he has never heard of an undersea creature with the power to withstand fire. Not even his father – at least, he thought not. Right now he knows nothing for certain.

He could try to stop the army of sprites coming toward the cove, but why would they listen to him? Sebastian is no longer heir to the throne. He is nothing to them anymore. Trent won't be leading the assault. There would be no one for him to appeal to, and no doubt his father has given them instructions to kill him on sight if they encounter him.

The only thing he can do is bide his time – prepare, keep an eye out for an opportunity to leap into the fray and do whatever he can to stop this battle.

Sebastian hunkers down and lets the strength of the moon flourish within him, trying the bindings on the cage every so often to see if he can wear them down. Otherwise, all he can do is wait.

And Sebastian hates to wait.

* * *

><p>The sky becomes blacker, and Kurt feels his body call out for the sun. From what he remembers, once the moon covers the sun, the earth will be awash in dark light, and that light, only visible during the eclipse, will give the royal heir to the throne their power. It's a form of rebirth – a metamorphosis from a common fairy to a king or queen.<p>

But if it's going to turn him into the heartless, self-serving creature his mother has become, he doesn't want it – any of it.

Unfortunately, it's too late for him to back out now.

Kurt had looked forward to inheriting a kingdom which had enjoyed centuries of peace, but now, here he stands, and his first command as king will be to annihilate an entire race – a race of beings he had longed to call friend and bring under his protection. But fate and vanity had declared them eternal enemies, and no power on the planet could stop the rage of war.

Alas, no more words from a wise and cynical sea turtle will be able to save them now.

Kurt turns his eyes to the sun shining above his head as the shadow of the moon starts to blot it out. The world around him turns dim, and the dark light of the eclipse begins to glow. He feels it first in his wings, as they start to grow and lengthen. Then in his arms and legs as they tingle and fill with unspeakable heat. Finally, his eyes begin to burn silver with the full power of the Eternal Flame, fed by his mother as she fills the lick of fire to the brim with a combination of flowers from the meadow – amaryllis for pride, iris for wisdom, callas for beauty, poppies for success, and roses for hope.

Kurt watches his mother and wishes for more roses – many more roses.

He can see his transformation reflect in his lover's eyes beneath the water. Kurt looks away, unable to stand their agony and wonder. He looks toward the horizon, at the stretch of ocean and the rolling hills. Off in the distance, small flecks in the sky gather in great numbers as they rise higher and higher. Kurt sees them – the pods of the white flowers that the turtle had told them about, bursting forth into the air to lift into the heavens, and as the strength of the flame flows within him, he feels his soul begin to break.

Hundreds of the flowers fly into the sky, and not a one of them wait to carry him and Sebastian from the earth. When the last one floats away and disappears, and the sun choked with darkness, Kurt looks back into the pool in search of Sebastian.

He sees only his own reflection.

No, he sees the reflection of a doomed king.

The fairy staring back at Kurt is not him, and never will be.

The fairies around Kurt fall to their knees, his many sins and transgressions suddenly forgotten now that he stands before them as their king.

"There," Elizabeth says, raising her arms and bowing low to her son in the presence of all so that they will know she gives him her blessing to rule. "I present to you all my son, Kurt, King of the Fire Fairies!"

"Long live the king!" the fairies chant as they toss their offerings of flowers at his feet, and more offerings into the flame. "Long may he rule!"

Kurt breathes in deep and looks down at the water, seeing ripples as they start to arrive.

"There will be no peace," Kurt whispers to himself, opening his wings to rise high into the sky. "Today, the end begins."

Behind him, a regiment of fairies dressed in armor and carrying spears topped with flame fall in line, waiting for the battle to start.

Many heads poke up from the water's surface. Kurt searches the water for Sebastian, but his water sprite is gone, and Kurt doesn't blame him.

Line after line of water sprites appears, but only one sprite speaks.

"My name is Cassius," the sprite says. "Supreme General of the Undersea Kingdom, under the command of King Malek the Great."

"And what have you to say to me, Supreme General?" Kurt asks, his voice a rumble over the earth and sky. "Why have you come to our shores on the eve of this sacred ceremony?"

"I have come to you," the sprite says in a stiff, commanding voice, but with more respect than Kurt would have expected, "with a declaration of war."

"And why does your king declare war on us?" Kurt asks, stalling as he tries, even now, to find a way out of this mess. If he can stall until the eclipse is over, the sun will force the sprites back into the water.

Not that that will stop the war, but it may delay it a little.

"Your realm has been charged with crimes to the crown," the Supreme General declares, "specifically in the matter of His Royal Highness, Prince Sebastian, exiled son of the king."

"Then I will discuss this matter with King Malek himself," Kurt declares, "since it is because of me that your prince was exiled, and I would like the opportunity to defend my actions." Kurt looks down at the Supreme General, who stares back at him, unmoved. "Is your king with you?"

"He is not," the Supreme General replies, "but I have my orders…"

"Return to your ocean and tell your king I will speak with him on this when he has the courage to face me!"

The Supreme General calls out a command, and the army advances, but Kurt rises higher, spreading out his arms, his hands engulfed in flame.

"How far do you think you and your army will be able to come up onto my shores?" Kurt asks. He reaches out an arm and calls for the flame. It leaps at his command, threading over the cove, lighting the grass and smoking wildly, forcing the sprites to retreat into the pool.

Kurt hears his wall of fire sizzle, and a massive wave of smoke rises up from the grass as a line of sprites extinguish the fire. Kurt reaches out to relight the grass, but it is soaked in water, and the flame doesn't catch.

"I think," the Supreme General says with a smug grin twisting his lips as he rises up from the pool and marches his troops onto the shore, "that we can come up as far as we please."

Kurt feels his new power – his _mother's_ power - luring him into battle, forcing his hand. He creates a wave of fire rising high into the sky, tall enough and wide enough to push every sprite climbing his shores into oblivion. The sprites see the fire - see it coil like a viper - preparing to strike.

But the front line of sprites, ready to sacrifice their lives, is only a diversion. A regiment of soldiers armed with tridents and nets surround the cove, sneaking up into the grass behind the fairy king, preparing to strike once the whip of fire finds its mark – preparing to ambush the king and as many of his army as they can and drag them into the water. Completely engaged with his snake of flame, the sprites close in around him, waiting for their signal.

The fire lashes out, the nets fly into the air, and all at once a belt of water dissolves the fire and carries the army of sprites back into the ocean.

Kurt spins around, fluttering high, startled for the moment that he was saved within an inch of losing his life, but he has no idea by whom. The smoke from the extinguished fire whip clears, and Sebastian is there – a transformed Sebastian – an immense, imposing water sprite the likes none have seen since the last time the Great Sea King Malek left the confines of his castle. The army of sprites rally up behind him, preparing to press the advantage of this moment of surprise.

"Enough!" Sebastian yells, waving a hand and washing the remaining sprites back into the water before they can release their nets again.

"Sebastian," Kurt mutters, looking Sebastian up and down, relishing seeing him with his new eyes. "But, how…"

"I became my father," Sebastian says bleakly, "like you became your mother."

"But, you never said anything," Kurt says. "Did you know…"

"No," Sebastian answers with a dry chuckle, shaking his head. "I can safely say no one ever warned me about this."

Startled cries rise up as the onlookers try to wage war around the two kings, but a potent wall of fire, and another ring of water manage to keep the warriors in their place.

Kurt feels the mounting swell of black light fade and he knows the sun will soon return and bring forth the day.

"Sebastian, you have to go," Kurt says. "The sun will come out. Take your army back into the water and leave."

"Not without you," Sebastian says, moving closer.

"But, I can't," Kurt says, looking down around at his fairies trying to breach the water and fire wall. "I have to stay here."

"And wage your Mother's war?" Sebastian asks. "Then the only choice for me is to stay with you, no matter what."

"But…you can't…and I…I have to…" Looking into Sebastian's eyes, Kurt finds it hard to remember exactly why it is so important that he stay. What was going on around him that was more important than the water sprite in front of him?

"We can end this, my love," Sebastian says with his hand outstretched. "Remember?"

"But the flowers," Kurt sobs, trembling in dismay. "I saw them. They're gone. They've floated away and left us behind."

"They don't matter," Sebastian says. "We'll find a way. We're strong enough to make it there…together…on our own. Let's leave this all behind and start our new world, Kurt. What do you say? Will you come with me?"

Kurt looks at Sebastian's hand beckoning to him, fingers curled inward, inviting him to come along. _There_ is his out. He still has a chance at peace.

Sebastian is offering him the greatest gift in the world – a second chance.

And more than anything, Kurt wants to take it.

It's the singing of the sun in the sky that alerts Kurt to the trouble before he sees it.

Kurt could have saved him, could have rescued Sebastian from the eclipse if he had only taken his hand, but as soon as a sliver of the sun shows its face, Elizabeth – standing aside, forgotten, hidden by the flame - sends out what is left of her power and shoots Sebastian to the ground, sending him reeling into the single ray of daylight.

It strikes him in the eyes; its effect on the sprite instantaneous.

"No!" Kurt screams, as the fairies disperse and the sprites run for cover, ducking back into the water to avoid the daylight flooding into the cove.

Kurt stares up into the sky, watching the shadow of the moon uncover the sun. Kurt uses his power and pulls every cloud above to the cove – every thunderhead, every cumulonimbus. He fills the sky over their heads with an infinity of clouds, but it's not enough to undo what has been done.

The soft dirt cruelly holds Kurt's feet as he runs across it, his large, flowing wings slowing him down. Or maybe it's time slowing, since Kurt is sure it will stop if Sebastian is actually dead. Kurt looks down at Sebastian's limp body, his scorched eyelids, his face relaxed as if in sleep – peaceful in death.

"No," Kurt whispers, dropping to his knees. "No, no, no, no. Sebastian?" Kurt reaches out for the water sprite, his hands gently touching his cold cheek, caressing his skin. "Sebastian, please…please, wake up."

Around the two lovers the fairies gather. From the shore, sprites take tentative steps out of the water.

"He had such a beautiful soul," Kurt says, talking down into Sebastian's face, as if a multitude of eyes aren't watching him grieve, a multitude of ears not listening. Kurt sighs, leaning forward to kiss Sebastian's lips one more time, tears falling from his eyes, showering Sebastian's cheeks like a drizzle of rain, but they could not wake him. Not anymore.

"I did this," Kurt says softly. "I killed him."

"Kurt…" Elizabeth says, hovering over her son. Kurt's eyes snap up to meet hers, a fire of their own blazing, piercing through the dark of pupils burning with hate.

"I killed him," he repeats, holding Sebastian's body close to his chest, cradling the water sprite's head against his heart. "And you did this, Mother!" he screams. His gaze sweeps the congregation around him, his turbulent eyes taking in the faces of fairy and sprite alike. "And you! And you! And you! All of you, with your hate! Your stupid, mindless hate! And for what? Who won? Nobody! Nobody won!"

Kurt turns his back to his people. He ignores the sprites creeping forward, attempting to claim the body of their fallen prince. With great reverence befitting a noble king, he lifts Sebastian in his arms and walks away from his kingdom, heading with purposeful strides toward the water.

"Kurt…" Elizabeth says, following behind him, "what are you doing?"

"I am returning Sebastian to his home," Kurt says, not turning to face his mother.

"But, you can't!" Elizabeth cries. "If you go into the water, you'll die."

"Then I die!" Kurt cries, pausing a step. "And this debt of the fire fairies to the water kingdom will be repaid."

"Kurt!" Elizabeth screams after her son. "Stop!" But he does not listen, and she does not follow him down to the water. He stops for a moment at the very edge, where the gentle ripples lap at the shore. The water creeps in closer and his light reflects off it, a thousand dots shimmering over the slick surface, and for once Kurt sees the beauty in it – not of the reflection of the fire's glow, but the way the glimmer of flame blends with the pitch black water. A shallow finger of water reaches out for him and wraps around his ankle, tugging at his leg. The water chills Kurt's skin. With each tug that brings him closer, the sensation of cold whorls up his leg into his body, spreading icy hands toward his heart.

Kurt no longer fears the water. It rises up in search of its prince, but it will accept him as well, and they will be one.

"We'll be together," Kurt says, brushing a lock of hair from Sebastian's face, "just like we planned. Just like we dreamed. You and me and our brand new world."

Kurt takes a step forward, and then another. The waves rise up to greet them, to fold the two children in its arms and take them under.

"I love you, Sebastian," Kurt says, letting the final wave cover him and carry him into the dark.

The cove is hushed, the water motionless as glass, the Eternal Flame dancing alone on its branch, burning lower and lower.

The water sprites, still gathered at the water's edge, look on the scene in shock, but the fairies have begun to cry in mourning.

That is why it is the sprites who notice the disturbance in the water - the way it churns slightly and bubbles from below, swirling like a whirlpool around and around as a crown of shimmering grey flesh rises from the deep. A face breaks through the surface, and then a hand – open flat and facing the sky. Resting on the palm lay two small figures – Sebastian and Kurt, still as if sleeping and wrapped in one another's arms.

"Malek," Elizabeth says, addressing her other half for the first time since the Earth began.

"Elizabeth," he says back, his green eyes focused solely on the bodies in his hand.

"We did this," Elizabeth says solemnly, looking down at the still body of her son.

"Yes," Malek says, gazing down at his son, "we did."

"He would have ruled in my stead," Elizabeth says.

"And he in mine," Malek says.

Elizabeth looks at the two boys lying side-by-side, fingers laced together even in the cold gloom of death.

"So, why don't we give them what is theirs?" she says, brushing the hair from her son's eyes with her fingers, and then from Sebastian's eyes.

"How do you mean, my sister?" Malek asks, watching his sister tend to his son.

"We'll exchange our fate for theirs," she says. "We will leave this world in their place. Then they can improve what's been made here, and we will away and create a new one." Elizabeth smiles. "Then we can look down on them from above."

"We will let them rectify our mistakes…" Malek adds, taking his sister's hand.

"…and rebuild this world…"

"…so that things may begin again, the way they were meant to be."

Elizabeth turns to her children – to the mass of fairies floating on the air. She extends her hand and brushes through them with one final caress as she reaches out and takes hold of the Eternal Flame. She holds the lick of fire in the palm of her hand and places it beneath the surface of the water. It sputters and dances, flailing out in all directions, but does not extinguish. Instead, it floats away beneath the sea.

"Your children will always be welcome here…in my son's kingdom," Elizabeth says, her body becoming translucent, her form shimmering like sparkles on the water.

"And your children will always be welcome beneath the water…in my son's kingdom," Malek says, placing the two bodies in the sand as his own form begins to fade.

Around the bodies of the two fallen princes a cyclone of light forms – one blue, twisting and spiraling in one direction while another, soft and pink, spirals in another. They spin and twirl, faster and faster, fitting one another until they become one – a beacon that shoots to the heavens and lights the sky, filling the earth, the sky, and the water all with its radiance. There's a moment when the light becomes so bright that everyone witnessing it must turn their eyes away or risk being blinded by it forever. The light bounces off the ocean, reflects the stars, and makes the land around them hum with life. But soon the light disappears and the world becomes dark and quiet once more…

…except for one point of light that glows in the center of Kurt and Sebastian's joined hands.

Finally, the silence that covers the cove is broken when two lost souls take their first breaths together as one.


	13. Epilogue

Kurt taps his feet and flutters his wings anxiously as he looks down at the sun setting toward the horizon.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on…" he mutters, watching the yellow ball of fire drop slowly from the sky, becoming heavy and golden as its rays come in contact with the water. Kurt counts the seconds as the last of the light touches the land, spreading out, racing across the ocean with fingers of champagne pink, the sky fading into a broad palette of purples and blues that bleed out the night.

"Yes," Kurt cheers, preparing to leap from the throne room window and soar into the sky.

"Kurt!" a petulant voice whines, catching him before he leaves. "When are you going to let me out of the palace?"

"Ugh! Rachel!" Kurt groans, stuttering and almost falling from the window's ledge. "Not yet, my darling. You're still too weak."

"Mother wouldn't have kept me locked up half this long," Rachel pouts, plopping down in Kurt's throne, kicking her feet and letting her heels scrape against the floor.

"Yeah, well, you don't know the things that Mother would do," Kurt mutters.

He steps out onto the air, spreading his wings in the cool breeze, letting it hold him aloft.

"Kurt!" Rachel calls out, her rough, grating voice summoning her brother.

"What?" he asks impatiently, hovering just outside the window.

Rachel's grin is weak from her convalescence, but sincere with her love for her brother.

"Tell lover boy I said hello."

Kurt rolls his eyes and laughs, glad to have his sister back to taunt him to no end – king or not. He waves one final good-bye and pushes off the wall of the palace, sprinting for the water. Over the surface of the ocean he flies, the swells parting as his wings beat against the breeze, the light from his body glittering like the stars on the water, calling forth his one true love.

Sebastian can see Kurt's light from anywhere beneath the water - from the darkest reaches of the farthest abyss, even the other side of the world. Not before too long, the Great King of the Sea answers, rising up from the waves to chase his Fairy King. Kurt zips through the sky, laughing and bobbing just out of Sebastian's reach.

"Come on," Kurt says, twirling upward, barely escaping Sebastian's grasp, "you've got to do better than that to knock me out of the sky!"

"I'm not trying to knock you out of the sky," Sebastian chuckles, launching through the water, diving down deep and then rising up into the air to grab Kurt around the waist. Kurt plays at struggling to break free, but he eventually surrenders, like he always does. The water pulls Sebastian back down, and Kurt lets Sebastian take him with it. In Sebastian's arms, the water rolls off Kurt's skin, his wings and his flesh barely even wet by the time Sebastian's wave carries them to the shore of a distant island and deposits them on the sand.

The island is a creation of Sebastian's – a gift to Kurt for his coronation. It started life as a large rock imbedded in the ocean floor, miles wide, that would naturally have floated free if not for a single tether keeping it wedged inside a crevasse. Sebastian released it, and with Kurt's help, they established new life on its surface – grass, trees, and flowers of every variety and color, but mostly roses.

Hundreds and hundreds of roses.

"You cheated," Kurt laughs, squirming to stand, but Sebastian wraps his arms around him, locking their bodies together as they lay out on the sand.

"I did not," Sebastian says, pressing his cold lips against Kurt's warm neck, smirking devilishly when Kurt's eyes go from sea blue to liquid silver with desire. "I won fair and square."

"You call that fair, you brute?" Kurt moans when Sebastian finds a sensitive spot on his shoulder and runs his tongue over it. "You tackled me!"

"And you loved every minute of it," Sebastian whispers, continuing his assault on Kurt's skin until it's hot to the touch. Kurt tries to argue, but soon abandons any attempt at speech. Sebastian loves having Kurt like this – lying on top of him, the heat from his skin countering the cool of Sebastian's body, making everywhere they touch each other tingle. Kurt relaxes as kisses become softer, gentler. Kurt curls his wings over their heads, creating a private corner of the world where they can be absolutely alone - where even the stars can't see them.

One star especially.

"So, what did you want to do this evening, my liege?" Sebastian asks, not sure whether or not he's going to get a coherent answer.

"Are you making fun of me?" Kurt asks, looking into Sebastian's bioluminescent green eyes with mock offense.

"Not at all," Sebastian says, running a hand up Kurt's back, trailing light fingertips between his wings, causing them to flutter slightly. "Tonight, consider me your humble servant."

"Servant I'll believe, but humble - never," Kurt laughs, but Sebastian only attaches his mouth to Kurt's chest and kisses him hard.

Kurt hums with every press of Sebastian's lips against his reddening skin, considering Sebastian's proposition.

"So, you'll do anything I want?" Kurt asks, carding the fingers of both hands through Sebastian's sandy hair.

"Anything," Sebastian replies. "Just name it."

Kurt knows exactly what he wants. He bites his bottom lip as he tries to find the right way to ask.

"Do you remember," Kurt starts, "that night in the meadow, when we…" Kurt drags out the sentence, the blush on his entire body becoming deeper and deeper.

"A-ha," Sebastian says, provoking an already flustered Kurt.

"You called what we did an expression of love," Kurt reminds him.

"Yes," Sebastian says, addressing Kurt in all seriousness. "I'll remember that night for the rest of my life."

"Well," Kurt continues, raising a hand to trace circles over Sebastian's heart with the tip of his finger, "remember when you said that was one of many?"

"Yeah…" Sebastian smiles wide, rolling Kurt gently onto his back in the sand, watching Kurt carefully unfurl his wings.

"I thought, maybe you could show me another one," Kurt finishes, his eyes cooling as they focus on Sebastian's sinful mouth, and the way his lips curl up at the edges when he smiles.

"Oh Great Fire King," Sebastian says, covering Kurt's mouth with his own. "Your wish is my command."

_The end._


End file.
